Our History Explorer workshops engage the children’s imagination and use a combination of drama techniques, exercises and games to explore historical events in an immersive way.

Sounds fun, right? Find out a more about what you can expect from these workshops here.

There’s plenty of research* showing that drama in the classroom has benefits for the development of language. Role play in particular has been identified as a valuable tool for building vocabulary in younger children. Drama is great for oral literacy and storytelling for when children are at a pre-writing age and for when they are developing their writing skills.

When you’ve got an empty hall and plenty of space to move around, ideas for a drama lesson are endless. But what happens when you want to introduce drama activities into your normal class time?

This was a question that came up in discussion during our last CPD event in the autumn. As a group we shared our thoughts and ideas for getting creative when you’re in amongst desks and chairs. And here are some of our creative teams’ top tips: 

Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had a good start to the new school term - mince pies and wrapping gifts already feels like a distant memory doesn’t it? But as one good thing comes to an end an equally exciting one steps into its place. There’s plenty to be looking forward to this spring. For example… 

When a child opens a poetry book and look at the pages, what do they see? Rarely do they see uniformity. They see words and letters making all different shapes across a page. Some short, some long. Some with rhyme and some without. Some poems even become the illustration of what they are describing. 

Anti-Bullying Week takes place on 11th November to 15th November this year, and 2019’s theme is ‘change starts with us’. At West End in Schools we have been running Anti-bullying drama workshops for the past two years, but we are constantly developing and improving the workshops based on feedback from teachers. 

The new school year is upon us! And we are excited about what this year holds.

From the dancing our way through Roald Dahl Day to taking pause to reflect with poetry on Armistice Day - there’s plenty to get involved with.

This summer we have been introducing all the books featuring in our World Book Day 2020 Story Explorer workshops. We wanted to share with you why we love these books as well as five of our favourite classroom activities to accompany them. This week is our last (but by no means least!) book in the list by author, comedian and TV personality David Walliams.

In this blog series we have been looking at classroom activities that compliment our Story Explorer World Book Day 2020 selection. So far we have looked at The Rainbow Fish, The Tiny Seed, Stick Man, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda and Fortunately, the Milk. This week we are focusing on a classic tale that follows three brave children on their childhood adventures!

It may be the middle of the summer holidays, but our minds are on World Book Day (7 months and counting…). If you’re short of something to read this summer, head to our World Book Day 2020 book list for inspiration. Other the summer term we have been sharing some of our favourite activities to go alongside our Story Explorer book selection. We are sure that our book in focus this week will make you laugh out loud no matter what your age…

Earlier this term we shared our book choices for World Book Day 2020. The power of a good book selection is something the protagonist of this week’s focus story understands! Our previous blog explored Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox, and this week we are looking at another Dahl classic…

This week some post arrived that had the whole office smiling from ear to ear! We were lucky enough to receive an envelope from Four Marks Church of England Primary School stuffed with hand written letters from their Year 5 and 6 children, responding to our workshops with them earlier this term.

Roald Dahl Day isn’t just a time to celebrate a great author. It is a day to celebrate everything Dahl’s stories teach: creativity, perseverance and fun!

Welcome to the third in our blog series introducing our Story Explorer World Book Day 2020 selection! So far we’ve talked about ideas for The Rainbow Fish and The Tiny Seed. This week it’s the turn of another renowned children’s author Julia Donaldson and her much loved book Stick Man!

How useful is your PPA time?

For teachers, it’s a much-needed chance to step out of the classroom and to get on with planning and marking. But what about the children? How useful is it for them?

Last week we announced our World Book Day 2020 selection for both our Bringing Books to Life dance workshops and our Story Explorer drama workshops. This is the first in a series of blogs taking a look at our selected books, what makes them so wonderful, and what activities you can do to explore the book in your classroom. First up we have The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

This year we have developed a series of complimentary CPD sessions for primary school teachers. Each workshop guides teachers through a series of tools and techniques they can apply in their own classrooms. Throughout the sessions we invite teachers to ask questions, to share their practise and experience. There are a few common questions that teachers ask about running their own performing arts lessons in their class.

How can we teach climate change to children in a way that feels productive, and not terrifying? Back in March our Creative Director Abi began working with a group of primary school teachers, environment experts and some of our most experienced drama facilitators to answer this exact question…

In Part 3 of our Guide to Teaching Shakespeare, we look at getting children up on their feet and performing the bard’s work. From character statues to character creation, here are some exercises and activities that you can use in the classroom, differentiated for different ages.

You’ve told, read, re-read and re-told your story. Everyone knows what’s happening. (Finally!) Great.

Safe with an understanding of the overall story from a narrative version, it’s time to transfer your students’ knowledge to a script version and discover how Shakespeare really brought his stories to life.