History Explorer:
drama workshop
✓ Year 1 - Year 6
✓ Led by a professional actor-facilitator
✓ History
✓ Delivered in your school hall
Reimagine history in your primary school with a workshop using the techniques of professional theatre
Dive into your chosen historical event and time period with an interactive History Explorer workshop. These cross-curricular drama workshops take a fun and accessible approach to History by enabling children to develop their confidence and communication skills while gaining an in-depth understanding of the topic.
During the class-by-class sessions, each group will help our Time Traveller navigate their way back through time while exploring their chosen topic. Children will reimagine the life and times of that period, gather key information and facts, and consider how it might have felt to be a person living through that time. Using theatrical techniques, they will also consider the topic within a historical timeline and, finally, discuss its legacy.
Classes work alongside an expert drama facilitator and sessions are tailored for KS1 and KS2. Each drama workshop can last from 45 to 60 minutes for KS1 or 60 to 90 minutes for KS2.
You can read more about what to expect from our History Explorer workshops in our blog.
Created by:
Abigail Rosser
Find out more about our creatives.
- To think critically about the topic by experiencing it first-hand.
- To understand what came before and after the historical period you are exploring.
- To walk in the shoes of the people in your chosen historical period, and to consider how their achievements impacted the world.
- To develop creative ownership and the imagination by working alongside a professional actor-facilitator.
- To explore different ways of communicating, both verbally and physically.
- We work with children in their usual classes.
- Sessions are 45 - 60 minutes for KS1.
- Sessions are 60 - 90 minutes for KS2.
- We can work with up to five classes per day.
- To work with fewer classes we can visit for just an afternoon or morning session.
- To work with more than six classes we can visit across multiple days.
- We will send you a suggested timetable when you enquire and we can work with you to create a timetable that works for your school day.
Can’t find the answer you’re looking for? Try our FAQs page.
Watch us in action!
Get a flavour of the West End in Schools experience with our new workshop highlights video.
Topics
We can work with two topics per day, or one per half day.
From life inside a traditional manor house, to the lives and legacies of Henry VIII and William Shakespeare, we'll travel back in time to meet the Tudors.
How were childrens' lives different in tbe Victorian times? Step into the classroom and workplaces of Victorian children, and learn about some of the Industrial time's greatest inventions.
Discover the traditional stories, beliefs and social structures of the ancient Maya civilisation. Using techniques from theatre, children will visit and explore a temple, and learn about the ancient Maya Gods.
Work together to recreate a typical Iron Age village, discovering the different roles that people played. Build a hill fort, and explore the rituals and beliefs of the Druids.
Travel back in time to the Stone Age and learn about the three different stages, how our tools developed, what people ate, and how they lived. Using techniques from professional theatre, examine a day in the life of someone during the prehistoric period.
Explore every day life in Ancient Greece, train with the Spartans, and discover Greek gods and goddesses from Zeus to Athena. Recreate the depictions on an ancient Greek vase to determine their influence on the modern world.
Explore Roman Society and be put through your paces by a Roman Army general. Discover the story of Queen Boudica and the impact Rome still has on modern Britain.
Learn about the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Travel to a Saxon village to explore their way of life, meet their Gods, be inspired by their storytelling, and consider their legacy.
Discover where the Vikings came from and where they settled. Explore their every day lives, their infamous warrior status, and recreate their legendary storytelling and Norse gods. Consider their legacy as either raiders or settlers.
Explore the events behind the infamous 5th of November Gunpowder Plot, from Guy Fawkes’ gang to King James I, to the letter that revealed everything. Reimagine and explore how bonfire night is celebrated today.
Travel back in time to 1666 and explore the events surrounding the Great Fire of London. Discover what caused the fire, why it spread so quickly and how it impacted Londoners’ lives. Reimagine the construction of a new, safer London.
Discover how Florence Nightingale revolutionised nursing and hospital standards during the Crimean War. Explore how she improved the lives of wounded soldiers and how she came to be known as 'the lady of the lamp'.
Explore the Great War through the eyes of the War Poets. This special workshop was created for the 100th anniversary of the Armistice and takes a slightly different format. It can include every child in your school, or take the form of just a few sessions for a small number of classes only. See our Poetry and Poppies page for more information.
What was it like to live on the home front during the Second World War? Learn about the Blitz and take an imaginative look at the life and experience of an evacuee.
Build an ancient pyramid and discover the secrets of the Egyptian Gods and Hieroglyphs.
