Primary Schools Learning Programme

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Contents Page 1 - Introduction Pages 2 & 3 - Literacy Journalistic writing: “Strange Happenings�

Story-making Scriptwriting: Ghost Stories Traditional Tales Pages 4 & 5 - History Vikings Greek Theatre Wake Up History Page 6 - Science Shadow Puppetry Senses and Materials Page 7 - Special Projects Playhouse Shakespeare Workshops Page 8 - Using The Theatre Theatre tours Marketing and Communication Production Based Workshops Page 9 - INSETS Half day sessions available in school or at the theatre

To book contact: education@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/01904 658162

EXPERIENCE...learning through theatre Learning programme for Primary Schools York Theatre Royal offers you a wealth of flexible workshops to work and learn with us in school or outside of the classroom here at the theatre. Through our previous schools partnerships we have developed numerous curriculum based workshops that utilise the skills and resources of our organisation.

Workshops are available all year round but sessions at the theatre are subject to space availability. To book please contact: Education Administrator 01904 658162/education@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk Please supply the following information: • Preferred dates and time of visit • School contact details, including email contact for the lead teacher • Number and ages of students • Workshop session you would like to book and where you would like it to take place Sessions are for a maximum of 30 students. Please note: due to the age of our building our spaces are not all fully accessible. Please contact us to discuss any access requirements.

York Theatre Royal has a national reputation for programming excellent work for children and young people in both our 100 seat studio theatre and 850 seat main house. To view our current programme please visit: www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Free teacher tickets and school booking discounts apply and you can book by calling the box office 01904 623568

“The speaking and listening strand of our Literacy assessment uses drama as a tool for allowing children to express themselves confidently and experiences provided by York Theatre Royal has contributed significantly towards this.”

Park Grove Primary 1

Workshops at a Glance

Literacy Journalistic writing: “Strange Happenings”

During a tour of the theatre, the students have to unravel the mystery of some strange happenings. An actress has had her costume ruined and someone has moved all the lights out of position. Students will get to meet and interview various witnesses of these strange events to try and work out what has been happening. They will then write up their stories and findings back at school into a newspaper story using this theatrical context as their basis.

Story-making

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Open improvisation games and exercises are used to help the children to work with one another, learning to use their bodies to create place and object whilst discovering how to animate inanimate objects through basic puppetry techniques. Using props from our ‘Suitcase full of stories’ the children are encouraged to develop the story, building upon one another’s ideas and suggestions. Then, using found materials, children work in small groups to develop stories around a given theme.

Journalistic writing: “Strange Happenings” Story-making

Key Stage:

KS2

KS1

Duration:

Half day workshop at the theatre

Half day workshop in school

National Curriculum Progression Links:

QCA Literacy non-fiction.

Unit 2: Journalistic writing

QCA Literacy, narrative.

Unit 4: Stories about fantasy worlds

Cost:

£175

£150

2

Workshops at a Glance

To book contact: education@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/01904 658162

Scriptwriting: Ghost Stories

The day begins with a tour of the theatre, concentrating on the story and happenings around our resident ghost ‘The Grey Lady’. The group is then taken through the process of establishing the WHO, WHERE and the WHAT of the story through characterisation, hot-seating, improvisation and group story-making to discover the secret of ‘The man with the bowler hat’.

Traditional Tales

Using a traditional tale of your choice we take the children through the process of recreating and inhabiting the story, exploring the characters and the dilemmas that they face. We explore choices the characters make and alternative endings – what would have happened if a different choice was made? We then pursue what repercussions this would have had on the narrative of the tale.

Scriptwriting: Ghost Stories

Traditional Tales

Key Stage:

KS2

KS1

Duration: Full day workshop at the theatre or half day

in school excluding the tour

National Curriculum QCA Literacy, narrative Progression Links: Unit 5: Dialogue and plays (Yr3) Plays (Yr4)

QCA Literacy, narrative.

Unit 3: Traditional and fairy tales (Yr1) Unit 2: Traditional Stories (Yr2)

Cost:

£150

£225 (whole day), £150 (half day)

Half day workshop in school

3

Workshops at a Glance

History Vikings

Become immersed in the world of the Vikings. Students will experience and create a Viking longboat sailing on a Scandinavian Fjordland, use Nordic poetry and go in-role hierarchically in a Viking village to deal with the dilemma of whether to leave their lands or not. Students will also work with our catering staff to make a Viking stew, which they will eat over lunchtime!

Greek theatre

The group will work towards performing the story of ‘Pandora’s Box’, learning about how Grecian theatre developed from religious celebrations whilst developing understanding of skills in mask, text and choral work.

Students will build on skills learnt through the day and apply them through their performance.

Vikings

Greek Theatre

Key Stage:

Lower KS2

Upper KS2

Duration:

Whole day workshop at the theatre

Whole day workshop in school

National Curriculum QCA Unit 6C: Why have people invaded Progression links: and settled in Britain in the past?

QCA History Unit 14: Who were the ancient Greeks?

Unit 15: How do we use Greek ideas today?

Cost:

£225

£300 inc. lunch (£225 exc. lunch)

4

Workshops at a Glance

To book contact: education@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/01904 658162

WAKE UP HISTORY!

A brand new historical theatre experience for key stage two children. Be inspired by theatre and motivate your children all term with our fun packed project.

History wakes up and comes to your school - the children meet an historical character, hear of their adventures and take part in drama based activities. The humorous and educational monologues have been written by the celebrated playwright Jane Thornton (Wuthering Heights, I Want That Hair) and are brought to life by a professional actor. Follow up activities are delivered by one of our education staff.

The package also includes a well stocked resource box containing a wealth of materials and cross-curricular lesson plans linked to the monologue, to complete a whole term’s work. The periods of history currently covered by the Wake Up History project are: The Tudors, The Victorians & World War II

“Working with YTR has taught fresh new ideas which helps to bring our lessons to life. The way in which history was taught in my class was very much sit and listen, but through YTR workshops I have introduced drama which has motivated the children into learning more when they go home, as well as being excited about a Tudor person within the classroom.”

Carr Junior School

Tudors

WW2

Victorians

Key Stage:

KS2

KS2

KS2

Duration:

90 mins

90 mins

90 mins

National Curriculum Progression links:

QCA Unit 8: What were the QCA Unit 9: What was it like for the differences between children in the Second World War? the lives of rich and poor people in Tudor times? £175 (plus travel outside York) £175 (plus travel outside York)

Cost:

QCA Unit 11: What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?

Unit 12: How did life change in our locality in Victorian times? £175 (plus travel outside York) 5

Workshops at a Glance

Science Shadow Puppetry

The science behind shadows, light and colour is explored using our portable shadow screen. Using the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’, the story is broken down and transposed from a story into a play format as a whole group.

Using pre-made templates we create the characters as shadow puppets and work on puppetry skills, culminating in a performance of the story using our shadow puppetry theatre!

Senses and Materials

The group will be taken on a hunt around the theatre to discover what types of materials are used in the building and why they are used for each purpose. They will be given a hunt sheet to note down all the different types of materials; what they think it’s made from and a description of how it feels to touch. The second part of the morning will be a practical workshop where the students will be led to understand their bodies as materials and how our bodies are affected by different types of materials.

Shadow Puppetry

Senses and Materials

Key Stage:

KS1

Reception/ KS1

Duration:

Half day workshop in school or a whole day at the theatre, which includes an additional lighting session using the theatre’s lighting resources.

Half Day workshop at the theatre

National Curriculum Progression Links:

QCA Science. Unit 1D: Light and Dark. 3F: Light and QCA Science. Unit 1C: Sorting and using Shadows. 2B: Puppets. Literacy, narrative - unit 1 Stories materals. 3C: Characteristics of materials. with familiar settings 2E: Forces and movement. £250 (whole day) £150 (half day) £150

Cost:

6

Special Projects

To book contact: education@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/01904 658162

Playhouse Playhouse is a national collaboration between Theatre Royal Plymouth, Polka Theatre, Dundee Repertory Theatre and York Theatre Royal. The four theatres work together to commission professional playwrights each year to write short plays specifically for large casts of young people aged 8 to 11 years to perform. There are then 4 festivals performing the new plays across the UK. Past writers have included Julia Donaldson, Adrian Mitchell, Geraldine McCaughrean, Roy Williams and Phillip Ridley.

Each theatre works with 6 schools in their city and supports the development of the teacher as a director. The project is launched with representatives from all 24 schools coming together for a 2 day retreat with the 6 writers. Following the retreat, the teachers then return to school to rehearse the play with professional development opportunities throughout.

The plays are performed in the theatre to friends and family. The children are treated as a professional company and have their own dressing rooms as well as experiencing a technical and dress rehearsal prior to performance.

Cost: £350 Comments from past Playhouse teachers:

“Impacts on future productions in schools, gives teachers a working model to use in own productions, shows children the magic of theatre” “Amazing experience! Final result is an enormous pride in what the children have achieved along with an increased confidence in own ability to run a production” “Unique opportunity to meet the playwright and find out what their motivation and references for writing the piece were”

Shakespeare Workshop An energetic, participatory session guaranteed to get any scheme of work on Shakespeare off to a flying start. This workshop is an introduction to one of the following texts: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest or Macbeth (other texts may be available on request), giving a thorough exploration of story, characters, themes and language, whilst opening up opportunities for further literacy work.

Duration: 2hrs Cost: £150 Available for KS2 students in school or at the theatre.

“The workshop you provided was fantastic- the children were completely engaged throughout the morning session and acquired an immediate knowledge about a play that we hadn’t studied, due to the ingenious way that you introduced the theme then characters, bravo!”

Yearsley Grove Primary School 7

Using the theatre Theatre tours

Tours of the theatre are available; highlighting the history of the theatre from Roman to modern day, understanding the different roles of our staff as well as the practicalities of how a theatre works. A tour with secrets revealed!

• Suitable for any age • One hour long • The tour is accompanied by a resource pack for follow up work in school Cost: £2 per child

Marketing and Communication

Students are taken through what marketing means, forms of communication and the process of how to market a show. Students will be taken through the design process of how to create a poster leading to them designing their own poster. The final part of the session will be practical, introducing students to communication and presentation skills, before they present their final poster design to the rest of the class.

• Suitable for Upper KS2 • Half day session in school Cost: £150

Production Based Workshops

Pre and/or post show workshops are available around children’s shows. These workshops will either explore the skills involved in making the production or the themes inherent in the production. All workshops are available in school or at the theatre and will take an active approach to deepening the students understanding of the production.

• Suitable for any age • One hour workshop in school or at the theatre Cost: £75 per workshop Please note: due to the age of our building our spaces are not all fully accessible. Please contact us to discuss any access requirements.

“Pre and post production workshops and theatre visits has helped the children to develop their performance skills and critical appraisal abilities.”

Knavesmire Primary 8

Staff Development

To book contact: education@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/01904 658162

INSETS – half day sessions available in school or at the theatre.

Using Drama in the classroom

This INSET provides practical approaches to exploring and working with any story. The session can be used as a way of introducing a story over a whole morning or split up and divided to create a scheme of work.

The following techniques will be demonstrated and discussed: • Group collaboration and inclusion games • Small group image making • Soundscape • Sculpting • Physical approaches to creating character • Status • Whole group story-telling • Thought-tracking Cost: £200

Active Approaches to Shakespeare

Led by York Theatre Royal’s Associate Director, Juliet Forster - who previously was Associate Practitioner with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Education Department. This INSET provides a practical, on your feet approach to Shakespeare. It is primarily focussed on introducing Shakspeare at KS2, but includes a range of techniques that can be easily adapted for KS1. The session explores ways of getting Shakespeare’s characters and stories off the page, bringing the world of the play to life and tackling the language. The following plays are offered as a focus text: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Alternative texts may be used by negotiation).

Cost: £200

“The INSET training was hugely popular amongst the staff who have utilised many of the techniques taught, to promote the role of the arts within the school. We have been particularly impressed with the workshops conducted with the children and feel that this has helped to promote many skills especially speaking and listening.”

Clifton With Rawcliffe Federation 9

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