West End in Schools Blog
Teacher resources and the latest news from West End in Schools.
Poppies and Propaganda - the original ‘fake news’?
Back in October a class of Year 6 children in London were taking part in a workshop about the First World War. Their session focused on the Battle of the Somme. As they explored the experience of the soldiers and the news reports from the time, something didn’t seem right. The explosive descriptions of the battle clashed with the reports that declared ‘Everything has gone well!’ It was confusing until they began discussing it in the context of today. Why would the news say something that wasn’t true? That just makes it fake news doesn’t it?
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.
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.
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.
Let’s talk about Shakespeare Today!
Thousands of schools, families and organisations take part in Shakespeare Week every year. In 2016 Shakespeare Week celebrates 400 years of Shakespeare’s creative legacy and it looks like it’ll be busier than ever.