Primary school circus workshops are something I've really taken to in the last few years. I've now been invited back 3 years in a row to bring my circus workshops to primary schools in Oxford, Bristol, Reading and London. I'm always looking to expand on this growing list of schools.
January was a really fantastic month for school circus experiences with 4 schools confirmed and more coming up in February and March.
Primary School Circus Workshops with WOW Factor!
Along with the support of Bigtopmania, I really feel we offer a first rate service in terms of delivering circus experiences beyond just the simple have a go workshop. What I am aiming to offer is a full on circus experience. With even the basic packages booked through me, schools are still treated to a 25 minute multi-prop circus show to get the pupils inspired from the very start.
Moving through the day the pupils are introduced to a variety of traditional circus skills, ranging from peacock feather balancing and plate spinning, through to unicycling and tightrope walking, juggling and flower sticks. The day really does leave children inspired and is a fantastic way to launch the popular circus topic, or indeed round the topic off after they have spent the term learning about circus by showing them a full on circus show. Children will finish the day inspired to learn a new hobby, my aim is to show children what they can achieve when they put the Xbox down, or forget about their iPads for just an hour a day and give children that don't enjoy mainstream sports an alternative way to engage their active sides and improve co-ordination, self-confidence and all manner of other personal attributes.
Having recently performed circus shows at primary schools in Tooting and Hackney and with upcoming schools in Fulham and Chiswick, I'm really enjoying regular jaunts to the capital and meeting such a diverse range of children from different backgrounds.
One of my most recent Circus WOW days was working mostly with Year 1's, I altered my approach slightly for the workshop element, introducing the different skills much more slowly and using demonstrations in a show and tell style way to give the children confidence and ideas before getting their hands on the equipment.
Q&A with a Circus Performer - Build pupils confidence and people skills.
Another element that I like to offer as part of my circus days is the opportunity for the children to have some carpet time asking me questions about my life, how I came to be a circus performer and my experiences within circus. I've found this unlocks some fantastic curiosity amongst children who ask the funniest things. It's great because it gives me another chance to engage with the pupils on a more personal level.
Lucas Jet - Circus Poet? Coming Soon
I've always enjoyed writing poetry but not really done it much since being at school, while I was in Hong Kong I had quite a lot of time on my hands so I wrote a few circus poems. My plan is to make them into animated videos for youtube and perhaps perform them live when I go into schools so that the teachers can use them as a resource or example when teaching circus topic. Watch this space!