Business
Practical advice for teaching in schools Our top 10 tips on how best to secure dance business as a dance teacher in primary and secondary schools.
Funding for primary schools: • Primary schools may have access to government funding for children’s development (eg, PE and Sport Premium, Pupil Premium in England). • You can propose that these funds cover extracurricular activities like dance costs. Member resources: • Our top 10 tips are derived from our school cheat sheets.
We aim to demystify the process of securing regular dance teaching in primary or secondary schools and provide additional support to our members. As part of our Find Your Dance Space campaign, launched last year, our goal was to encourage more people to dance with ISTD qualified teachers while assisting our members in overcoming pandemic-related challenges and rebuilding their dance businesses. To aid our members in this endeavour, we offered comprehensive business support resources. These included informative guides covering marketing strategies, social media approaches (see page 20 for more details), and brand development. We also
provided a marketing toolkit featuring downloadable and customisable materials such as social media posts, flyers, and letters. These resources aimed to help our members promote their businesses effectively and attract more individuals in their local communities to seek out ISTD qualified teachers. Furthermore, we developed concise cheat sheets as part of our member support. These cheat sheets offer valuable advice on how ISTD approved dance teachers or schools can approach local primary and secondary schools to secure regular business. To summarise, here are our top 10 tips for successfully engaging with primary and secondary schools to establish ongoing teaching opportunities.
• Download and print the cheat sheets through the member portal. • Once you have a well-defined package and relevant materials, you can use them as a blueprint when approaching other schools. • Access support resources at www. istd.org/findyourdancespace
When approaching the schools, it is important to maintain an open mind to the schools projects and achievements and how you can slot into their ethos and values. All schools are different in their own approach and as a dance artist/teacher we can use our flexibility in our work to create projects and partnerships that work for both and can be developed over time. Katie Bell, Principal of Bell Dance Academy, Cornwall
14 Dance | Issue 499
