Work with us: Drama Facilitators for Secondary Schools
Drama Facilitators for Secondary Schools
Our applications are always open however we will not be processing new applications until Autumn 2024.
Every child’s imagination should be inspired by the arts. West End in Schools' mission is to use the skills of the professional theatre to provide highly creative cultural experiences for children and young people which they will remember forever.
Using our experience as an Olivier Award winning production company, we bring together performers, creatives, industry specialists and teaching artists to provide highly creative cultural experiences for children and young people which they will remember forever.
As well as our extensive work with Primary schools, we deliver Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Shakespeare workshops in Secondary Schools across the UK. Our work is primarily with mainstream state schools in communities across the country.
About you
We are always looking for people that reflect our diverse communities, to help us work in new ways and become more relevant to the schools and children we serve. We recognise that this is not yet present in our current workforce, so we particularly welcome and encourage applications from people from diverse backgrounds and life experiences.
We’re looking for brilliant facilitators who want to inspire the next generation. You will have an infectious passion and enthusiasm for the arts, and for storytelling.
You can be either a full time facilitator, or an actor or director with facilitation skills.
You must either have a recent enhanced DBS check or be happy for us to submit you for one.
You will need good time keeping, planning and organisation skills.
You will deliver the workshops on your own so need to be a confident and engaging representative of the company to the Head Teacher and other school staff.
Helpful but not required:
If you can drive that is brilliant - but it is not essential.
About the workshops
Our KS3 and KS4 Shakespeare workshops are created by a team led by our Creative Director Abigail Rosser, including Jimmy Bates, Matt Harrison, Hannah Maddison and Joshua Miles. They explore plays at KS3 and GCSE level from the theatre makers perspective and help students address GCSE level Assessment Objectives.
You will work class-by-class with sessions typically lasting from 55 to 90 minutes. All of the activities are provided for you in a detailed plan and training is provided.
At KS3 we currently offer workshops on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and The Tempest. At KS4 we offer Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.
You can read about the workshops and how we describe them to schools on our website on the KS3 workshops page and KS4 workshops page.
Typical day as a drama facilitator
Travel to a school which could be some distance from home - perhaps staying nearby the night before.
Arrive at a school at 8.30am, start teaching at 9am and finish at 3.15pm. There is usually at least an hour break for lunch.
Lead workshops for class groups of approximately 30 children, throughout the day.
You will be working with pupils in Years 7 to 11.
Other strands of workshops we offer
In addition to secondary school drama workshops we have two other strands of work: drama workshops in primary schools and dance workshops in primary schools.
If you are highly skilled in more than one area please apply once to your favoured strand (ie dance, primary drama or secondary drama) and note your other areas of expertise on your application. We tend to start new facilitators in one area so that learning our workshops is more manageable. If we think it would be helpful we will talk to you about other strands of work you’ve indicated during your application process and with your agreement may move your application across.
Pay and terms
Contract: Freelance.
Rate of Pay:
Workshops paid at £165 per day or £100 per half day.
We pay you on a weekly basis using a self billing invoice system - ie we write your invoice for you and send you the payment, reimburse your expenses and send a PDF of the self billing invoice every Tuesday.
Training paid at London Living Wage, paid once you first deliver a workshop.
All travel and accommodation expenses are covered from your door to the school, and also to attend training if you are travelling long distances.
Locations: We deliver work in schools across the UK and are looking for facilitators in all regions and hope everyone will be willing to travel. Facilitator auditions will take place in Manchester and in London. Some paid training days in London will be required.
Workshop delivery dates: Workshops are available all year round
Flexibility for professional auditions booked via your agent: The majority of our drama facilitators are actors in between performing jobs and need to be able to audition. We offer complete flexibility for auditions, and ask that in return you do your best to accept work from us at short notice if we ask you to when someone has withdrawn due to an audition.
How to apply
You are welcome to apply at any point during the year to be a drama facilitator. We will keep your application on file and will be in touch in Autumn 2024 when we are next recruiting, or sooner if work becomes available.
Apply now
Please fill in our application form and the equal opportunities form which will follow it, which is kept separate from your application.