Engaging with schools

Nurturing children’s creativity

Here at Born and Bred Dance Theatre engaging with schools is something we really enjoy. Our work in schools is extensive, varied and encompasses the following:

As most of our school work is bespoke in its design it may be useful to have a look at the examples below.

Weekly Workshops at St. Peters Catholic Primary School, Stalybridge

Born and Bred Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, Olivia Peers, has been working in St. Peters in Stalybridge since 2012. Her job is to teach dance and to nurture not only the technical movement skills required to progress as a young dancer but to also nurture the children’s creativity. Most of the sessions are linked with what the children are studying in class. For example this term Year 6 were learning about Llandudno, so we used dance to explore the topic in a completely different and creative way. Olivia devised a series of progressive workshop sessions as she saw Year 6 on a weekly basis over a half term. Olivia also choreographs routines for class assemblies and the Christmas Show.

Olivia has been teaching dance at St Peter’s for the past 5 years. The high quality of her provision has resulted in the most amazing outcomes! Children love dance at St Peter’s which is entirely due to Olivia’s incredible choreography and facilitation. Her kind and supportive approach with the children allows them to reflect upon and express the world around them with articulation.

Elaine Summersgill, HeadteacherSt. Peters Catholic Primary School, Stalybridge

One Day Workshop at Millbrook Primary School for Rainbow Day

We were invited to be part of Millbrook Primary School’s wonderful Rainbow Day in February 2018. The day aimed to explore how different families can be and how wonderful that is! We devised dance workshops for Years 2 - 6 to create three different family inspired performances for the end of the school day. Each workshop was designed so that as well as learning material the students had the opportunity to create their own movement that was then worked into the performance, ensuring a sense of pride, ownership and understanding.

Arts INSET Day at St. Lukes C of E Primary School, Glossop

The Arts INSET Day, organised by Headteacher Alice Littlehailes, saw ten schools from across the borough come together to celebrate and acknowledge the importance of the arts within education. Along with a myriad of other local artists in a variety of artistic disciplines we delivered workshops, tailored for specific year groups, that focused on creating dance workshops inspired by your National Curriculum topic. We provided staff with sample lesson plans and links to online resources to help them implement dance sessions within their school life.

Bespoke Arts Award Project at Thomas Ashton School, Hyde

Thomas Ashton is a special school in Hyde, for pupils who have identified social, emotional and/or mental health needs. Through conversations with staff at the school we designed and delivered a project to fit into the schools overall arts strategy. We decided to run a half term of weekly movement and drama workshops that explored the theme of anger. This is an emotion that many of the students struggle with, both to understand and to deal with it. As part of the project we also chose to incorporate Arts Award Explore. This meant that we could organise a half term of drumming sessions that also explored the theme of anger, and organise a visit to Contact Theatre where the students got to go on a tour of the building, eat pizza (I am sure they enjoyed this more than the whole project!) and watch a show. An artist from the company who made the show, also visited the school to deliver a spoken word workshop. The project culminated in a sharing event for family and friends, where the drumming work provided a live music score for each dance piece performed. You can read more about this project here.

Olivia has successfully introduced topic led contemporary dance to our very challenging SEMH pupils in both KS2 and KS3. Our staff were inspired by her sessions and their confidence in using a thematic approach was given a real boost. Olivia led and facilitated a dance based Arts Award project which was achieved by ALL participating pupils. Our parents were thrilled (and some were moved to tears) at her ‘sharing event’. Olivia is a sensitive, skilled and highly organised dance educator.

Elizabeth Southall, Teacher/Arts CoordinatorThomas Ashton School, Hyde

For more information about how we can work in you school, college or university.

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