Beyond the performance: UK Education Hub update

Since May, every theatre works! grant has had to include an educational element alongside the visit. A few months in, the more interesting question is what schools are actually doing with it.

Some of it happens before the curtain rises. Students who visited Chichester Festival Theatre to watch The BFG took part in a puppetry workshop alongside the performance. Students in Edinburgh learned fight choreography before seeing The Karate Kid at Capital Theatres and then watched the same moves performed on stage, which is a good deal more memorable than being told that stage fighting is choreographed.

Most of it happens afterwards, back in the classroom, and that is what the Education Hub is for. It provides teachers with free resources for primary and secondary students, built to be picked up without preparation. Some schools want a full lesson; others want ten minutes to fill the end of a Friday afternoon. We provide both.

The Education Hub resource that has had the most downloads to date is the resource exploring backstage roles. We ask theatres to make sure post-show Q&As include technical team members, because a child or young person who has never considered that lighting or stage management might be a possible career path, often leaves the building thinking about it.

Teachers also tell us the effect reaches children who are hard to reach by other means:

‘There is a real camaraderie that formed from this shared experience between the children, especially for our children with SEND, who usually find it hard to engage in a traditional lesson in a school setting, they really thrived and enjoyed this environment.’

- Teacher, Dallimore Primary and Nursery School (Horrible Histories: Awful Egyptians, Theatre Royal, Nottingham)