West End in Schools Blog
Teacher resources and the latest news from West End in Schools.
Top 5 Poems for Primary School
At West End In Schools we have lists (long, long lists) of poems we love, but we’ve whittled it down to just five, and this year we’ve been working on transforming these five fantastic rhymes into specially created drama workshops.
Pantomimes and PTA
“Can a pantomime really help the PTA?”
— Oh yes it can!
Many PTA’s help cover the cost of a school’s pantomime visit as a seasonal treat for the children, but did you know that pantomimes can be a fantastic fundraising tool as well?
A Guide to Teaching Dance Part 1 - Why
Are you a dancing queen? Can you conga round the classroom? Are you a master of mambo? Two-step or tango?! Whatever your style, or potential lack thereof - do not fear! In this blog series we’re going to cover all the steps that will help you deliver dance in your school to the very best of your ability.
First World War Centenary: how can we teach it in primary schools?
This year is the centenary of the end of the First World War and 100 years since the Armistice was signed on 11th November 2018. To mark the occasion we created Poetry and Poppies, an interactive workshop that combines poetry, drama, and history for the whole primary school. We spoke to Abi, the creator of the workshop, to find out exactly how the workshop came about and what its challenges were.
5 Ways To Get Creative With Roald Dahl
To celebrate Roald Dahl Day and the 102nd anniversary of one of the most phizz-whizzing writers of all time, we have compiled a list of our top five easy ways to get creative with Roald Dahl.
Touring school pantomimes Vs. panto at the theatre
Teachers often wonder whether they are better advised to visit their local theatre or to bring a specialist company into their school. When it comes to which option is best for your school, we think there are three main areas to consider: production quality, price and convenience.
Diwali Diyas – Teacher Resources
How will you 'light up' your school hall this October?
With Diwali on the horizon we’ve created a free teaching resource which you can read here or download to print off and use in your classroom.
Celebrating Roald Dahl - Teacher Resources
Do you like Gobblefunk? We love it!
From Oompa-Loompas to Snozzcumbers the invented language of Roald Dahl (Gobblefunk) demonstrates the fun that can be had by playing around with words and letting language loose!
Creative PPA Cover
Two years ago we were thrilled to be asked by a Primary School we had visited in Yately if we could provide PPA Cover for their KS2 classes.
We put together a programme called Star Partnerships, giving each class West End quality weekly drama sessions expanding on their current class topic.
The Flaw in the Fairytale (or how to make a school pantomime part 2)
It’s no secret that most adaptations of fairytales work very hard to change, solve or gloss over some of the darker details. But it’s one thing to watch an established retelling of a classic story, and an entirely different thing to create your own. For this year’s title, Beauty and the Beast, our writers Andrew and Alex went back to the original tale before writing their version. But going to the core of the original story meant coming face to face with the story’s biggest challenges.
How to Make a School Pantomime Part 1: The Read-Through
How do you reimagine a beloved story? How do you take a tale (as old as time) and make it work for primary schools across the country, and fit into an hour’s pantomime performance in their school hall, and make it so magical that they will remember it for years to come? Read about the making of our new Beauty and the Beast pantomime here!
Celebrating Creativity at the Education Show
We do shows, we do education, (and sometimes we do Birmingham too!) so we thought perhaps we should check out the Education Show at the NEC! Once we found out that dancer Darcey Bussell and Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen were key speakers we booked our train tickets!
World Book Day - “Can we do that again?!”
When we visit a school it’s not just the children who have fun! We spoke to our lovely Daisy Maywood about her passion for Bringing Books to Life…
“I loved dancing like chocolate” – Heidi, Year 1
There is no better feedback than spontaneous reactions from an honest audience! That’s one of the things we love about working with children...
“It’s behind you” : The story of Pantomime
The main purpose of a pantomime is light-hearted entertainment. Good old fashioned fun in other words! That cornerstone of the genre has stood strong over hundreds of years of ‘panto’. But who is in the audience, and how they are entertained has changed beyond all measure...
Roald Dahl Day Teacher Resources - The BFG
One of the world’s best storytellers - Roald Dahl - was born 100 years ago. Now is a great time to inspire yet another generation of children with the wonders of his work.
Even Scrooge would book a panto – here’s why!
A panto can make money for your school.
As an approved supplier of PTA UK we help schools to engage with their community and boost fundraising by providing the key element of a simple formula...
How Roald Dahl inspired me…
Roald Dahl Day is on 13th September and 2016 marks 100 years since his birth!
Now is a great time to inspire yet another generation of children with the wonders of Roald Dahl’s work. Our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Enormous Crocodile dance workshops are currently ‘flying off the shelf’!
We asked a few of our performers to tell us how Dahl inspires them. Here's what they said...
Why pantomime is like chocolate cake
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Musical theatre to support literacy teaching in primary schools
“I really enjoyed the way they got through a important lesson to us by acting it out, making it fun and letting us join in! Using popular books and well known stories it was amazing for everyone.”
Cerys, Year 4, Archibald First School.