Shaping the Next Generation: Two LIPA graduates making their mark in education

The careers of our graduates have taken inspiring and sometimes unexpected paths. Mike Jones and Andrea Mood have used the skills and values they developed at LIPA to help people build confidence, develop new skills and discover their potential while working in education. 

As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations, we caught up with Mike and Andrea to talk about their careers, the power of art and their LIPA highlights. 

Mike Jones (Acting, 2000) 

Tell us about Zinc Arts and your role as Head of Education? 

Zinc Arts is a small community charity based in Essex. We work with local disenfranchised youth with our outreach team and have a refuge on site for families who need emergency housing. 

My role is to run the adult SEN education department. We teach a curriculum of subjects and offer AQA backed certification, however, everything that we teach is delivered through art and performing arts. 

Our students have a whole host of conditions and abilities. Some live almost completely independent lives while others need 1:1 support for most things. However, it's fair to say we spend most of our days laughing and having fun. I have a great team of creative people, who are a combination of artists, designers, performers and ‘wizards’. We also have a great team of volunteers who continue to amaze me with their kindness.  

What inspired you to pursue your role? 

I fell into this role by mistake. In 2008, I was on tour in the UK production of Our House and one day, I fell ill, and by the evening, I was shivering and sweating. I was hospitalised and it turned out I had developed common variable immune deficiency. It took me a year to get back to reasonable health and working again, but my performing days were done.  

I had taught drama workshops and was a teaching assistant between acting jobs, so I signed up with a teaching agency and when they asked me if I would work with special needs students, I didn't think much about it, and I said yes. I found out I had a knack for it and I loved it.  

After working in a small therapeutic school that taught GCSEs to students with autism, ADHD and a whole host of other complex and multiple conditions, eventually I ended up managing and running one. The job at Zinc came along and it was the perfect combination of my SEN experience and my acting and theatre experience. I've been here now for almost five years and I absolutely love it.   

How do you use the arts within in your organisation?  

We work on a project or theme for a term, and we use art and performing arts to pull out of that all the learning we can. Once, we did our own version of Alice in Wonderland and as part of the performance we made a Rube Goldberg machine, and I used this to teach the students all about kinetic energy and changes of energy.  

In the past we turned the building into Hogwarts and had chemistry lessons, and as part of our Indiana Jones movie we made our own version of the Rosetta Stone and took it with us to the British Museum in order to steal the real one! 

What has been the most rewarding part of your career so far? 

I love the moments when you see someone grow. There are times when someone faces a challenge, either getting out of bed in the morning, facing their nerves to perform or making beans on toast on their own, but the joy and pride I see when they succeed is what makes me get out of bed in the morning. 

What's your favourite LIPA memory? 

Whilst at LIPA I was lucky enough to be part of a small student run project. We did Fool for Love by Sam Shepard, directed by James Harvey, who was also in my class. We were selected to go to Lausanne in Switzerland and represent British Drama schools at a theatre festival. The cast was me, Gavin Spokes, Simon Willmont and Tiril Inglestadt - all graduates in the class of 2000, and the designer was Matt Gant.  

Andrea Mood (Acting, 2001) 

Tell us about your role at Clayton Hall Academy. 

My current role is Director of Faculty for Drama and Music at Clayton Hall Academy, Newcastle-Under-Lyme.  

My role involves the design and delivery of the Drama and Performing Arts curriculum as well as overseeing the teaching and learning aspects of Drama and Music. We are lucky to be part of a trust that offers many opportunities for performing arts including conferences, workshops with professionals and residential trips for students. 

What inspired you to pursue a career in performing arts education after LIPA? 

Alongside working as an actor, I initially worked as a freelance drama facilitator in Manchester and my work included therapeutic play with Refugee/Asylum seeker children as well as delivering drama sessions to children. 

It soon became apparent how powerful drama was as a medium to build relationships, confidence and to allow children to just be joyful. I realised that I loved designing workshops, helping students to be creative and to produce performances. This inspired me to train as a secondary drama teacher. 

What has been the most rewarding part of your career so far? 

I often reflect on the students who communicated that drama and performing arts was their ‘safe space’. It’s easy to forget the long-term impact a teacher can make when caught up in the day-to-day challenges of the job.  

I have felt extremely proud to see my students perform so brilliantly in challenging performances such as Kes, Shakespeare for Schools Festival and West Side Story. 

Another proud memory was a bit of a full circle moment for me when one of my A Level students was offered a place at LIPA.  
 

How did your time at LIPA prepare you for working in performing arts education? 

It has been such an amazing foundation. As a drama practitioner, I have always taken an approach that allows my students to feel like a company. I still use some of the warmups and games from my training as well as the acting and directorial skills when preparing examination work and shows.  

LIPA has always been an institution that encourages students to learn about the industry. This ethos is something that I have strived to instil in my students by arranging opportunities for them to take part in workshops with professional actors, directors, dancers and designers.  

It’s also important to me for students to be able to access professional spaces to perform and in the past, I have made links with theatres such as the Bristol Old Vic, New Vic in Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Contact Theatre in Manchester.   

What's your favourite LIPA memory? 

I have such fond memories of the improv games with the late Iain Ormsby- Knox many of which I use 25 years on. I absolutely loved performing in The Tempest and The Cherry Orchard, but a real highlight was being directed by the wonderfully talented Adam Penford in The Winslow Boy.

Attending the recent LIPA anniversary reunion brought back so many memories - it was wonderful to catch up with my class of 2001.