This December and January and even going back as far as November i've been in school almost as much as I was when I was in school. I counted 10 school circus skills days in November alone.
I benefit from not restricting myself to a small catchment area when offering circus workshops to primary schools. The downside of that is a lot of early mornings and huge drives but I wouldn't change it and it means I get to meet children from all different backgrounds.
I would say most of my school days are in London but in November I spent a lot of the time in the midlands and also performed a super special school day in Swansea.
The school featured below was Crynalt Primary School and they were treated to a large scale circus show by Lucas and Jony. We brought our backdrop and ring mat and I believe it was kept as a surprise treat for the pupils. You can check out a 1 minute video of the shows we put on below and I wonder whether anyone knows anyone on the PTA at other schools that might be interested?
After the show we spent the whole day teaching pupils how to spin a plate, some of them managed juggling, we balanced peacock feathers and had a go at flower sticks. A fantastic day and great way to improve children's perseverance whilst tapping into key messages from the growth mindset principal which is so crucial in primary schools.
What will 2020 bring for Circus in schools?
I've already had a great start to the calendar year in terms of delivering circus skills workshops. I was rebooked for the second year at Christ Church School in Clifton, Bristol.
I always appreciate working in my home city and love getting rebooked for schools year on year even more. It's lovely to see familiar faces and work in surroundings that I remember. I got a lovely thank you email with a couple of really lovely sentences in it.
We are so pleased you enjoyed your day as much as the children and we did! You were really fantastic, such a great show. We also loved your kind manner with the children, this let them shine even more as they felt so comfortable in your company.
Below is what Christ Church had to say about the circus day on their website.
Year 4 had a wonderful circus day with Lucas Jet, a circus performer based in Bristol. To kick start the day, Lucas put on our very own circus show and got lots of the children involved in his tricks. This got the children very excited for the workshop where they learnt how to balance peacock feathers on various parts of their body, spin plates, use a diablo, juggle and use flower sticks. All the skills took a lot of resilience and perseverance, but everyone was able to master new talents. As it turns out, Year 4 are a brilliant bunch of circus performers and some children even managed to choreograph their own circus routines! At the end of the day, all the children were involved in a performance where they were able to demonstrate to some parents/carers all the amazing tricks they’d learnt throughout the day. We hope this day will be a great inspiration for our literacy focus this term!
As well as being rebooked for Christ Church in Clifton, I was also booked for the second time to teach circus to Year 2's at Barnsbury Primary School in Woking. The day started with a very busy and incredible atmospheric circus show for the whole school. This was the same last year, the whole school can only just fit in the hall so the energy in the room was at peak excitement levels.
Next up for me I'm heading to Banbury for Orchard Fields and the 3rd year in a row they've had me for an annual circus skills day. I'm even going to be performing an evening show for the parents as part of a fund raising initiative that the school have come up with.
