A Weekly Performing Arts, Oracy and Personal Development programme for Primary Schools. Use as an effective PPA cover solution or as a teacher CPD opportunity.
Our Bigfoot Perform Artist in Residence programme brings a Bigfoot professional arts educator into your school every week to deliver performing arts sessions during curriculum time. Designed to develop children’s oracy and important life skills, the programme works as outstanding PPA cover, a meaningful teacher CPD opportunity, or simply as a high quality creative learning experience that sits at the heart of your school week. Whatever your school’s needs, we build the programme around them.
Step One: Getting to Know Your School
Before a single session takes place, we come to you. We meet with your senior leadership team, spend time observing classes and have honest, focused conversations about your children, your priorities and what you most want this programme to achieve. We then come back to you with a clear and tailored plan of action built entirely around those discussions. Nothing is off the shelf. Everything begins with your school.
Step Two: The Programme
Working with your classes each week, your Bigfoot educator will guide children through an exciting performance project built around a chosen story, selected text or curriculum theme agreed with your school. Children explore and develop a wide range of theatre skills, using their voice, body and imagination in ways that many will never have experienced before. They then apply those skills to create their own original devised work.
Devising is where the real magic happens. It is a creative process that places the voice of the child at the very centre, celebrating individual ideas and the collective imagination of the group as they embark on a journey of self-discovery. Children learn to express themselves freely and take creative risks in a safe and supportive environment, watching their ideas grow and take shape week by week. They learn to listen to and celebrate each other’s contributions, to cooperate, to compromise and to build something together that is far greater than anything they could have created alone. Throughout this process our educators are alongside them, nurturing, shaping and helping to turn those ideas into something truly magical.
If your teachers opt for our CPD model, they will work along side our educators in the classroom, and will learn how to use theatre games, exercises and devising techniques to develop their own teaching practice.
Step Three: Sharing and Celebrating
Every programme culminates in a shared performance experience where children present their work to their peers, parents and the wider school community. It is a moment of genuine pride and joy, a celebration of everything the children have created, learned and become throughout the programme.
For schools wishing to formally recognise their pupils’ achievement, children can also take part in group LAMDA Devised Theatre examinations, internationally recognised performing arts qualifications that celebrate the work of the group and give every child a tangible award to be proud of.
Bigfoot will become an important part of your school village, and will look to develop strong working relationships with your school community in order to support the growth and development of your children through the arts.
Talk to us today about how your school can set up a Bigfoot Perform Artist In Residence programme by filling out the form below. Let us know what year groups you’d like us to work with and how many classes. Tell us a little bit about your children and what you want to achieve from our programme.
Contact us to build a bespoke performing arts learning programme for your school.
