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We’re living in a digital age where a new kind of knowledge is being put together. Being able to think across disciplines is more in demand. In our connected, international society we need to step outside classical forms of thought, stand in other people’s shoes, and see the world through their eyes. And this is where the arts come in.

The new primary science curriculum states that at KS1, teachers should enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena. This sense of wonder and fascination with the surrounding world is as important in performing arts as it is in science, and the two disciplines have many points in common.

Read this blog to find 10 strategies that will help teachers explore science in a new way and bring fun, play and performance into the curriculum, creating lessons that the children won’t forget.

I am not an artist. In fact my art teacher at school described me as the most boring pupil he had ever encountered. Although I thought this was a touch overstated, it was a setback to my creative ambitions and left me with few options but to become a bureaucrat….which I did.

Did you know that Nobel laureates in the sciences are 25 times more likely than other scientists to sing, dance, or act? That they are 17 times more likely to be a visual artist, 12 times more likely to write poetry and literature, and four times more likely to be a musician?

Are your children making progress during PPA time? Is your current PPA provision making your life easier and saving you time?

If yes, fantastic. Using the right provider to cover your PPA can have a huge impact on your children’s learning, school’s priorities and of course, your time. Good PPA providers will use this time to support learning whilst giving children new experiences and an enjoyable change to their usual routine. There are many PPA cover options out there, some internal and some external.

Recently we attended the Fundraising Masterclass for Schools, led by Bob Jennings of PTP Consultancy. We were looking for ideas to help our schools to apply for funding, and we left with a wealth of tips, tricks and examples.

If you’re a budding bid writer or have one in your school, this article summarises three of the most helpful tips for when it comes to writing a successful bid. And these are missed by schools time and time again…

Many schools use pupil premium funding to support their Artis provision. We spoke to Sarah Murray, Headteacher at Haveley Hey Primary School, to better understand why they chose to work with Artis and how this has impacted on the outcomes they were hoping to achieve.

Sarah explained that pupil premium funding has to impact directly on outcomes, so Haveley Hey have a multi layered approach. They focus much of their funding on CPD and improving the quality of teaching, but also have a more general approach aimed around giving children quality experiences.

Drama games can be used to vary the configuration. There are often certain children that you would rather didn’t sit together, and certain groupings can lead to poor behaviour, sapping a lot of the focus out of your lesson. Obviously, you can separate children, or have a seating plan, but there may be times when you want to mix up groups without drawing attention to the fact that you are doing so.

Most teachers agree that the key to behaviour management is preventing the poor behaviour in the first place, rather than knowing what to do after it occurs. For that reason, there will be no advice here on how to punish a child through song, signal your displeasure using dance or give a good ‘telling-off’ in role as a drill sergeant!

Our final 5 tips on how to teach literacy through the performing arts will give you even more ideas about how to bring literacy to life in your classroom.