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.

Each year we have the joy of whittling down our World Book Day selection to just five phenomenal books for our Bringing Books to Life dance workshops. This year we selected five books, each with their own unique set of benefits for primary school students. We wanted to share with you why we love these books so much, and also some fun ways to explore them back in the classroom.

Inspiring children to bring books to life with dance is one of our favourite things to do at West End in Schools. Just last week we gathered some of the country’s most talented dancers in one room, to work through the choreography for our Bringing Books to Life dance workshops in primary schools. We spoke to a few of our regular West End in Schools choreographers to find out more about their work with us to inspire children to dance.

It’s sometimes hard to argue the ‘why’ for something as intangible as storytelling, let alone prove that the benefits are real. In a school context, especially compared to subjects such as science or maths, why should we spend time imagining something that was made-up instead of learning facts?

West End in Schools’ Literacy Musicals are created to inspire a love of reading and storytelling. Each one includes an original story and songs while featuring contemporary children’s books as part of its narrative. Ahead of World Book Day 2019 we spoke to the writer of the musicals, Craig Christie.

For World Book Day 2019 we are launching a photo and video competition giving schools to win a free pantomime for their school this December!

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!

We are visiting schools across the country to celebrate Chinese New Year with a dance workshops based on “The Great Race”, the story behind the Chinese Zodiac. Not planned a dance workshop with us this year? Well fear not, there’s still plenty of ways you can get your class involved in celebrating!

Ease yourself into drama teaching by making it a regular part of your usual classroom activity first - and not an individual session at all.

Find or create appropriate opportunities in your day where you can spend approximately 20 minutes utilising drama activities in the classroom. This introduces a new concept to a class, gauges their likes and dislikes, and steadily builds your own confidence in delivery.

As with anything new, give yourself time to research, understand and prepare before jumping into your first drama session. My three instructions to you:

• Get involved

• Get online

• Get ready

Watching a narrative dance piece introduces to children what it means to communicate with their bodies, faces and gestures. It demonstrates how ‘dialogues’ can be shared without any spoken word, and how that itself may bring about whole new dynamics to ‘conversation’.

All the world’s a stage… including your classroom! Do you know your up stage from your down stage? Your Shakespeare from your Stanivlaski? No matter where your drama knowledge is at, this blog series will guide you on your way to delivering your best drama sessions! In Part 1 we discuss why teach drama, plus there’s a handy resource pack of drama games for you to download!

So last term you read our Guide to Teaching Dance series and you’ve found your groove? Thought so! Well, to help you along this year we’ve put together a 2019 Dance Calendar! Providing a year round excuse for getting the whole class up and jiving! 

The cow and the pussy-cat went on tour
With their pantomimes UK-wide.
The cow said, “honey, we’ll earn some money,
So join me on this year’s ride…

Books provide young people a window into a new world, they unshackle the imagination and promote the thought that anything is possible. World Book Day, is on a mission to give every child or young person a book of their own. It is a celebration of books, authors, illustrators and imagination!

When people think about the ways in which drama can help children, the most frequently talked about benefit of little ones pretending to be vikings, fairies or the lobster in the nativity is probably that it helps improve their confidence. But there are other ways too, from familiarising the unknown, to developing creativity, to encouraging empathy.

Putting together a panto season, complete with five different pantomimes on offer to schools, is no mean feat. As rehearsals draw to a close and with the first panto performances underway, we wanted to fill you in on what’s been happening behind the scenes at West End in Schools HQ.

新年快乐 Xin Nian Kuai Le! Or Happy New Year!

Perhaps a little premature, but I can’t help it I’m just too excited! This week at West End in Schools we announced the launch of our latest dance workshop for 2019 - The Great Race: Chinese Zodiac Dance Workshop.