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.

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. 

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…

In this blog series we have been working our way through the books in our World Book Day 2020 selection for our Story Explorer drama workshops. We have so far looked at activities based on Stick Man, The Tiny Seed and Rainbow Fish. Next up is the first of two Roald Dahl books on the list.

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!

Last month we announced our World Book Day 2020 selection. And this is the second in a series of blogs looking at how to utilise these books in the classroom (if you missed our first one on ‘The Rainbow Fish’ you can find it here).

This week we are taking a look at The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, one of the wonderful options for our Story Explorer drama workshops.

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

Each year we choose a special selection of books to focus on in dance and drama workshops during the World Book Day period, including one or two completely new workshop options. (This also means we get to spend some quality time in bookshops, which is an added bonus!)

We’re delighted to announce that our 2020 World Book Day choices are…

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…

You’ve made it! Welcome to the final term of this academic year - we are that bit closer to the summer.
It may be the last term, but it is by no means least. There are plenty of upcoming events and occasions to celebrate. And we have put together a timeline of what there is to look forward to this term, as well as some suggestions on how to get involved!

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.

Our advice when it comes to teaching Shakespeare in primary schools is to tell a story, break it down and get physical with it to bring the drama to life. In this blog series, we break down each of these points in turn to provide ideas and suggestions for how you can deliver them in our own classroom. To get us started, Part 1 focuses on telling the story.

How do I teach a five year old to get inside the head of a character?
How do I get a class of children to think about their physicality and use that to present a different emotion/mood/age
How can I encourage them to speak clearly?

Full disclosure: There is no one, immediate answer to any of these questions. Instead, there are different components of drama which can be combined, structured and explored accordingly, session-by-session, to aid your students in creating the answers themselves. Plus, it’s super fun!