Transition Summer Schools

✓ Transitioning to Year 7
✓ Led by professional West End performers
✓ Creative week of workshops in your school

Blending Learning with Enrichment

West End in Schools provides confidence building and inspiring summer schools for students transitioning from Year 6 to Year 7. We use drama to improve communication skills, enrich the students’ educational experiences, and deeply engage them in an activity which will end with success.

Through careful discussion with you we can use our choice of activities or clever timetabling to create a blend of enrichment activities and curriculum related learning to suit your preferences.

For transitioning students our summer schools promote friend-making and familiarity with their new school, and help nervous students become eager to begin their first term in Year 7 - especially in these times where it may seem an especially daunting step.


We need an inside space within your school suitable for drama. Staging and lighting is not required.


For a drama based workshop we would typically fully staff the workshop on a ratio of 1 staff member per 8 booked students. We require one senior member of staff on-site, contactable by radio or mobile phone.

For a split timetable workshop we would typically fully staff the drama component.

Alternatively we can look at alternative structures to suit your needs.


Throughout the summer holidays, in one or two week duration full time slots.


Summer schools are funded on a per student per day basis at £59.70 per student per day for each student attending a summer school, and for last minute cancellations. (For very small summer schools there is a minimum grant of £1,000 even if per day rates come to less than this.)

In our experience across multiple schools around 60% of those who initially commit to attend actually do so. It is therefore important to get evidence of confirmation from students in the summer term to enable the school to claim funding for students who cancel or do not attend.

We provide staffing on the basis of the number of confirmed students, ensuring that the schools’ funding always more than covers our costs.

The Programme

Timetable

Three main options exist for the timetabling of teaching and learning outside of the drama process:
  1. Split timetabling, for example dividing the students into red and blue teams with red having drama in the morning and taught lessons from your staff in the afternoon, and vice-versa. We could also include whole group drama activities creating as many introductions and friendships as possible, and potentially whole group written or artistic activities creating a journal of the summer school day-by-day.

  2. One-to-one teacher sessions with each student. We timetable the summer school so each student receives a one-to-one session with a Y7 teacher enabling relationships to be created and a baseline assessment to be made.

  3. We focus the drama on Shakespeare, using the play you will study in Y7, giving participating students a strong understanding of the play and its language before formal study in class. For drama teaching schools our rehearsal process will of course be something students can draw on in future lessons as well.

Content

  • We will agree the programme with you, but a typical one week or two week summer school would include the creation of either:

    A devised piece of theatre, inspired by and created by the students telling their own stories.

    or

    A devised piece of theatre, inspired and created by the students who begin by exploring a Shakespeare play and use its themes as their starting point.

  • The summer school ends with a performance to the students' families, perhaps outdoors, and in any case in a Covid-safe way, which helps make them feel a part of the school community.
  • The work will involve the vast majority of students in performance activities. Those less interested in performing can participate through design and technical activities.
  • Previously we have used a staffing ratio of one facilitator to every eight students actually attending, plus one member of school teaching staff available and on call on-site.
  • Our experience has been that around 60% of eligible students attend, which matches the national average, but obviously there will be local differences, and staffing levels will be agreed with you once you have received the expressions of interest.

Enhancing Attendance

We are happy to explore mounting a drama taster day or afternoon during the summer term which would be available to the eligible students.

The engagement we receive from participating young people, and their resulting excitement, indicates to us that such a taster day would increase the proportion of students keen to attend the summer school with the benefits that brings.