Can teachers out there talk to me about theatre in education please?

[AwkwardMaryHadAnEasterLamb]

Because I am thinking about starting a TIE company and wondered how it works from the school's point of view. I have performed in a few TIE productions but never had a clue about how they were organised/produced.

Who funds the visiting companies? How does a school decide who to invite to perform? Do I contact the LEA or the schools?

How do companies find out what topics a school will be covering? Is the National Curriculum set in stone or do schools get to choose which topics they cover in which subjects?

Basically ANY advice would be gratefully taken. Oh and if funds are low, would a "potted" play be useful to teachers? I was thinking about two actors coming in character to speak to the children of a particular class...maybe interact with them, show them relevant objects or sing songs if that were suitable to slot into part of the subject or topic and invite them to become part of a mini performance? It would be a lot cheaper for schools that way...

In primary schools, the school funds any visiting companies, either by re-charging out to parents or from school funds if available, so costs are key! What tends to happen is that either a flyer comes into school and someone goes " ooh, that looks good and we can afford it" so a booking is hopefully made, or the flyer is filed somewhere until a topic comes up that is mentioned in the information. There are some perennial favourite topics, mainly history based, so Greek/Roman/Egyptian themes would be popular, traditional tales for the younger ones, pantomimes around Christmas, "topical" events as and when they arise ( eg Olympics, Queens Birthday etc). The potted play idea would be more popular, Primary children tend to have short attention spans!
Secondary I would imagine is more Literary based, you would need to check out set books for different examining boards ( a secondary teacher can probably advise!)

That's very helpful indeed Snowball thank you! I hoped that a cheaper and interactive "playlet" would be something that might appeal because of costs...and also because of the lack of disruption in the school...it's literally two actors into the classroom....no bother wrt finding space.

I have no idea at all what to charge though. I would need to factor in my time as a writer, two actors (who would require SOME paid rehearsal) , transport and possibly insurance.

I have no idea what a school might pay for a larger scale performance?

Rainbow Theatre is the main one round here, you could always ask them for advice and opinions.
www.rainbow-theatre.com/

Agree with Snowball (I too only know about Primary). Mostly bookings are made by word of mouth - recomendations from friends who teach at other schools. My dcs school use a one man company who comes in to each year group once per year {I think} - he does WWII, Romans, Egyptians, and errr... not sure what else. The dcs find it really memorable. He comes in dressed in character with lots of artifacts and talks to them and they ask him questions as if he'd just been teleported in. Obviously he gets return bookings because he makes the dcs belive he is that character.
I've also been in schools that bring in a pantomime at Christmas, and I've seen an excellent production {which was to be toured around secondaries} about bullying.

Cost is either out of budget or donations from parents, so is a big factor, more so in some areas than others.
I can see that some real live actors might bring to life some English Literature lessons ??? (Disclaimer, I don't work in Secondary - they may tell you differently}

You need to think about the costs in two different ways, what schools can afford to pay and what you need to charge!

If the play is suitable for a class/year group then you are talking of probably a maximum of 60 children ( 2 classes of 30 each) Schools would find it difficult to charge more than £4-5 per child ( we can get theatre tickets for our local theatre for £4 each) so you are looking at £240-£300 maximum per performance. If it has a wider appeal, you might be able to justify charging more as the costs could be spread wider! However smaller schools ( with one class per year group-or even less in many cases) would find even this amount prohibitive. My school has 50 children across KS2 ( so 4 year groups) We very rarely have a theatre group in because we can't afford it, the price per pupil is usually prohibitive .( Again secondary schools are usually larger so the costs can be spread out more, you could easily have 120 pupils per year group so £5 per head would give you a much healthier £600 per performance!)

Agree, and then you also need to factor in the times you won't have bookings!

Thanks...very helpful info re costs there. I see though that sending one actor in would be more realistic given the budget constraints. I would need to pay for rehearsal time, transport and my own time...it seems like a lot of work for not much payback but then that's the arts! I want to do it because I want to bring theatre to smaller children...

Maybe you could charge secondary schools a fortune to subsidise smaller primary schools[bugrin]