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How to fund your school’s next Theatre In Education incursion

Funding is tight across the education sector with increases in the cost of living, high interest rates & cuts to education budgets. This doesn’t mean your students’ literacy & arts education has to suffer. There are many ways to ensure they can still get all of the benefits a theatre in education incursion provides.

So in these tight economic times, how can your school fund your next Theatre In Education incursion?

The answer is that several parties need to share the load. Get several departments & groups to each pitch in a little rather than one group funding the lot.

Who can you approach to share the financial load?

Ask your school’s financial manager: Sometimes there is funding just waiting to be used by projects like a Book Week theatre in education show. Parent contributions can be accessed as the show meets a range of curriculum needs for both literacy & the arts. Financial managers often have a few options to fund activities that classroom teachers don’t know about. It is worth starting there.

The head of literacy: With the company name “Books To Life”, it probably comes as no surprise that our shows promote literacy. We encourage students to read the new Australian picture books we perform, others on the CBCA notable & shortlist, plus more Australian books created by the same authors & illustrators. A theatre show that encourages your students to practice & improve their literacy skills is a great use of funding from the literacy budget. We even offer individually signed copies of the book with jokes & messages from the creative team & the characters in the book that students rush to the library to check out after the show.

The librarian or staff member who controls the library budget: Using some of the library budget to get students in the door & reading is the goal. Dedicating some of that budget to a show that encourages students to do just that is money well spent to ensure that your school library remains an in-demand & necessary space in your school.

The arts teacher/s who control their budget: Drama, Dance, Music, Visual Arts & Media Arts – Our show covers them all. If your school is lucky enough to have more than one of these areas as a dedicated subject for your students (such as music and art) then both subject areas can be approached to put in a little bit of funding per student for our show. They’ll all reap the rewards at the other end with our lesson plans providing excellent ways to achieve the arts outcomes in all 5 subject areas for your students.

Your local council library: Local councils want to advertise their services like their public library and encourage their constituents to engage with positive artistic projects in their area. Inviting the public library to host your school’s event (where they can also invite other local schools) or visit your school to make a little presentation to the audience at the end is a great way to engage with your local council for helping to fund your performance. They can often kick in a couple of dollars per student to help reduce the barriers for your students to engage with the arts & literacy.

Your local council, state & federal members of parliament: As your area’s voted representatives, they may be able to help with finding funding for your show. This is a great activity for Year 6 leaders to get involved with writing the letters to understand how government works.

Department of Education funding: Many funding opportunities are available for schools via their specific Department of Education. Special funding can be available for schools that are regional, remote, in a low socio-economic area, have a high number of students who are refugees, new migrants, non-English speaking as well as other categories. Contacting your Department of Education to ask if you qualify for special funding is time well spent.

Corporate sponsorship from local businesses: Approaching local businesses that share your school’s values & interests can reap great rewards. Local businesses can donate to help fund your show and claim it as a tax deduction. Using your school’s social media page to connect with your local businesses is a great way to engage with them and give them access to a large audience of parents & friends of the school.

Parents & Friends Association: People power is a magical thing & engaging with your school’s Parents & Friends Association to do some fundraising to help reduce the cost of the show is a great way to lessen the load on the school’s costs to host a show. A second-hand book sale, a book fair or a synchronised reading event can all work brilliantly to raise funds to go towards the show. Even a good old-fashioned sausage sizzle at your local hardware store or sporting event that does not already have a canteen, as long as the sporting club agrees.

Parents to pay a portion of the ticket price: If the school can fund part of the fee & the parents only have to kick in a couple of dollars per child then they’ll be much more likely to pay, especially if the show is well advertised using our trailer on Youtube. Collecting the payments 2 weeks before the show will also give schools time to remind those who have not paid that they need to get their money in before it is too late.

If even just 3 of these options kicked in a few dollars per student then you’d have the incursion fully funded. Please reach out to me at tony@bookstolife.com.au if you need any more suggestions. Chookas with your fundraising efforts!!

“Tony Bones” Appleby B.Ed

Director – Books To Life

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How can theatre in education help my students?

This will be a topic that I’ll delve into endlessly on this blog. How theatre in education helps students develop into better human beings. How it develops empathy, helps students understand concepts & engages them in content. So follow the blog and see both how you can incorporate theatre in ed into your school and also why you should start now. Talk soon.

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Can students achieve “The Arts” education outcomes without adding to the teacher’s already huge workload?

How can we as teachers provide “The Arts” education to our students without increasing our already overwhelming workload?

As a current school teacher I regularly talk to fellow staff members about how they and their fellow staff members are incorporating “The Arts” curriculum into their lessons & meeting the expected outcomes. The all too often answer is, “We’re not”, accompanied by a desperate look of exhaustion. I get it! There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day, especially when the administrative sands keep shifting & the curriculum keeps changing. So how do we as teachers find time to cover all of the required “Arts” outcomes to the highest standard whilst still staying on top of literacy and numeracy, not to mention student behaviour, reports, meetings, NAPLAN testing and everything else that is piling up on top of us?

As teachers we need to accept that we can’t do it all. No matter how good a teacher is, there is always going to be something that gets missed or glossed over, no matter how much we wish that it wasn’t the case. We may be super teachers, but we are not super human. So how do we ensure that our students don’t miss out on a key subject area that is so important to intellectual and social development? How do we ensure that we are teaching them fundamental skills in teamwork, compromise, creative thinking & developing the critical emotion of empathy? And how do we do it without dropping the ball in other areas?

The simple answer is to look at what the most successful businesses do. In the dog eat dog world of private industry you either deliver or you go under. So how do the very best run their business at a profit and still exceed their clients’ expectations? How do they ensure that what needs to be covered is covered to the highest standard? The answer is….. they outsource!!

The decision of whether to outsource something is quite a simple one: if you can get a better result for the same or less money by outsourcing it, then outsource it. If you are spending more time and money trying to do something yourself than you can afford, then outsource it. The alternative of doing it yourself when you can’t afford to just doesn’t add up.

So when you make the decision to outsource some of the trickier components of your arts education, where do you go to find a great professional who can provide direct links to your “Arts” outcomes? Furthermore, can you pay a reasonable price to get “The Arts” outcomes covered at the very highest standard that doesn’t involve you having to perform for your class yourself?Let’s face it, not everyone wants to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood & perform a puppet show to their class with a few song & dance numbers thrown in for good measure?

When outsourcing arts education then the person you hire in needs to be:

  • someone who is qualified. For you to teach in a school you needed to get a university qualification. Someone who has simply been in a classroom as a student but not trained as a teacher is not equipped to teach a class, just as a performer who has performed in some theatre shows but not studied arts education is not equipped to teach performing arts to students. Look for someone with a university degree in performing arts and in education. Like you, they are best equipped to teach students to the highest standard, they know their stuff, and as a fellow teacher they’ll know what you are looking for to educate & engage your students;
  • someone who is an expert in the field of performing arts. Someone with extensive experience and expertise in the Australian arts field will know what’s truly possible in live performance within a school environment and how to achieve it at the highest standard. At least five years experience in the field of theatre in education should have them knowing what works and what doesn’t in theatre in education;
  • someone who has a history of being highly successful. Finding someone who has runs on the board as a long time successful Theatre In Education producer and performer is difficult, but reading references and testimonials from other schools and teachers is the way to go. These will give you a good indication of what other schools have thought of the performer’s skill set & past performances. If they have a history of delivering what they say they will and exceeding expectations, then there is a good chance that they will do the same for your school.

    Tony Appleby B.Ed performing in 2014’s “The Windy Farm” with a variety of drama, dance & music elements.
  • someone who meets your needs. Not only must they write entertaining and moving scripts, but your incursion provider should cover a variety of performing arts areas to meet the various Arts outcomes you have for your different year levels. Do they cover elements of drama (including costumes, sets, puppetry, mask, multi-media, etc), dance (multiple styles), music (multiple styles) & singing (themselves & involving the students) in their show? Or do they just perform spoken word with a hat & jacket change? Will they get the audience involved in the show? Is their audience participation? What would you like your students to see in the show to cover “The Arts” outcomes you are expected to cover? If their details specify that they do, then you’re onto a good thing. If you have to ask, then make sure they put it in the contract that they will deliver the particular areas that you want covered.

And here is the kicker. To guarantee that your outsourced professional delivers they need to be:

  • someone who does not then outsource your performance to someone else. This is what a booking agent specialises in – outsourcing your outsourcing. You should make sure that the testimonials that you read actually refer to the performer/s that you’ll have performing on the day. Is the producer with all of the experience then outsourcing the delivery of performance and teaching to a lesser or completely unqualified staff member? This is certainly more cost effective for the producer, but as the customer it does not give you and your students any guarantee of what the person on the day is capable of or what experience they have as a teacher and theatre in education performer.

So shop around. There are a number of excellent theatre in education companies operating in Australia who can meet all of the above criteria and can ensure that your needs are met. To see what Books To Life offer, then check out our offerings at www.bookstolife.com.au Whoever you choose, ensure that you are getting what your students need – the very best possible education in “The Arts”.

To read why “The Arts” are so important for primary school students (and our future leaders of Australia) stay tuned for next month’s article “Developing Empathy in Young People… through Arts Education”.