Equipped for the challenge

EducationLive is a unique event that gives London’s teachers the chance to meet theatre industry professionals from a wide range of commercial and grant-aided theatres, production companies and venues across London. Established in 2008, it aims to engage with teachers and encourage them to visit the theatre with their students, thereby inspiring a future generation of theatregoers and theatremakers.

At the heart of EducationLive is a marketplace where teachers can learn from theatre organisations about the productions that will be running in London over the year ahead and see the range of education programmes, workshops, teachers’ resource materials, special events and school group rates available to support their students’ theatre visits. But teachers can also take part in practical workshops in voice, devising, text in performance and design. By giving them the opportunity to put theory into practice, EducationLive aims to build confidence and enable teachers to implement key skills back in the classroom. Participants are given resource packs that include information about the techniques they’ve used in the workshops, insight into offstage careers, and contacts and useful links.

By providing an opportunity for teachers to have a taste of the opportunities available to them, EducationLive is able to start breaking down some of the many barriers that make it hard for schools to engage with the theatre. Paperwork, cost, logistics, transport, lack of support from the head teacher, time constraints and the issue of cover when teachers are out of the classroom can all be contributors. As a former teacher I understand how difficult and time-consuming it can be to organise school visits. For some teachers it can feel like the amount of work and effort needed to galvanise a group is not worth it. But many theatres have excellent creative learning departments to help organise a theatre trip and make the experience less stressful. And, if it’s not possible for teachers to bring groups to the theatre, most theatres can visit schools in their home towns.

Recently the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) hosted a Kids Week launch event for schools at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. At the time I was concerned that we’d struggle to fill the theatre with school children but on the day the auditorium was packed with excited school children from over 35 different schools across London. This proved to me that it is possible to get school children to visit the theatre – you just have to engage with an inspired teacher.

I would implore more teachers to think about the profound benefits that an experience of the theatre can bring to a child’s educational, cultural and social development, and not to allow the challenges to dissuade them. I still remember my first theatre trip, and being taken by my school to see The Wind in the Willows. I sat between my classmates, eyes wide as saucers, transfixed by the imaginary world before me. From that moment I fell in love with theatre and the experience inspired me to study at university, train at drama school and pursue a career in theatre.

Today’s school groups are the audiences of tomorrow. It is events such as EducationLive that ensure teachers feel well equipped to rise to the challenge of inspiring the next generation of theatregoers.

Victoria Aspden is Events and Partnerships Manager at the Society of London Theatre and co-organiser of EducationLive.