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W hether you’re a crew member, performer or audience member, there’s nothing quite like the excitement of live theatre. As I write, students in schools across the country will hopefully be experiencing that excitement for themselves, be it an upcoming trip to see a particular theatre performance, or perhaps the preparations and rehearsals for a production of their own. At the National Theatre, our ambition is to ensure that as many young people as possible get to have these experiences, and can discover the variety of skills that can be learnt from the creative industries. We work with hundreds of schools across the UK each year and see first-hand how the performing arts can be a positive force in a young person’s life. We’ve found that the subject thrives in schools when there is a strong offering at KS3, which can lay the groundwork for success at GCSE and A ‘Level, and that it can provide every young person with valuable opportunities to be actively creative and develop new skills.  Pieces of the puzzle It’s important to remember that theatre isn’t just about acting. The best KS3 curriculums will introduce students to technical and craft skills that can include puppetry, costume design and lighting. A stage-shy 12-year-old may not want to perform, but they might flourish behind a lighting desk. A student with their heart set on a career as an engineer might not realise that they can do that job in a theatre. We’ve worked with some schools where theatre has been a term-long, cross- curricular theme throughout KS3. This enables students to work together on designing all the pieces of the puzzle that go into creating and staging a play, from students designing box office systems in IT lessons, to the building of props in D&T and scriptwriting activities in English lessons. It’s a large undertaking, but one that delivers a rewarding experience for both students and teachers, culminating in the final product of a performance. In November 2019 the National Theatre welcomed 130 KS3 students as part of the Discover! Creative ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jane Ball is the secondary and FE programme manager at the National Theatre; for more information, and to sign up to the National Theatre Collection,visit nationaltheatre.org.uk/learning Staging a theatrical production involves a range of skills and disciplines, making for an ideal cross-curricular learning project, says Jane Ball Theatre isn’t just about acting 69 P E R F O R M I N G A R T S Careers Week – a national initiative to encourage diverse new talent into the country’s booming creative industries. The students took part in hands-on workshops and watched an onstage demonstration run by our stage management and technical teams. The aim of events like these is to show students the range of careers available to them, and enable them to meet and be inspired by those who work behind- the-scenes. If you can, visit a local theatre with your KS3 students and give them some first-hand experience of an exciting and thriving industry. Many theatres run their own careers weeks and backstage tours. Collective experience There’s also scope for inspiring a love of theatre in English lessons. Whilst novels can be enjoyed independently, plays are best explored collectively. This could entail getting students up on their feet to read the play, or it might mean bringing the play to life by watching a production of it. We understand that it isn’t always easy to get out of school and see theatrical productions, so we’re excited to be making 25 plays from the National Theatre Collection available for UK state schools to stream in classrooms free of charge, through a partnership with Bloomsbury’s Drama Online. They include Greek classics such as Medea , vibrant modern stagings of Shakespeare such as Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet , and literary adaptations, including Frankenstein – all accompanied by cross-curricular learning resources. Schools that encourage their students to be both theatre-makers and audience members will likely end up with a cohort of inquisitive, creative and collaborative young people equipped with skills that will ably prepare them for not just their GCSE exams, but a range of exciting future careers. teachwire.net/secondary