Circus workshops for schools

Circus comes to your school. Over the day, children learn to juggle, spin plates, walk on stilts and pick up tricks with a diabolo, and by the end they’re showing each other what they can do. Here is what a Circus Day looks like, to share with your planning team.

Three formats

Taster hour

One tutor, one class, one hour. Juggling, plate spinning, flower sticks and diabolo, taught in a circle with everybody trying everything. Good for an enrichment slot, a transition day or a taste before you commit to more.

Half day

At least one of our tutors, three or four classes on rotation, roughly forty minutes each. Every group gets the full kit list plus balance boards. Most schools run this across one year group in a morning and let the afternoon go back to normal.

Full day, the Circus Day

At least one of our tutors, the whole day, up to six groups on rotation, ending with a sharing for the rest of the school or for parents at pick up. Stilts and unicycles come out on a full day because there is time to teach them properly. This is the format schools come back for.

Ages, group sizes and rotations

• Early years and Reception: up to 20 at a time, 25 minute rotations, scarves, plate spinning and balance. No stilts, no unicycles.
• Key Stage 1: up to 30, 30 minute rotations. Juggling with beanbags, plates, flower sticks, low balance.
• Key Stage 2: up to 30, 40 minute rotations. The full kit list including stilts and, with space, unicycles.
• Key Stage 3 and 4: up to 30, 45 to 60 minute rotations. Older groups take on partner acrobatics and building a short routine to show.
• Mixed year groups: we plan it with you. Pairing an older group with a younger one and letting the older children coach works better than either alone.

The space

Most halls, gyms and playgrounds work well, and we’ll talk through your space with you.

What we bring

• At least one experienced circus tutor, whatever the format.
• All the equipment: juggling balls, beanbags, scarves, rings, clubs, plates, diabolos, flower sticks, balance boards, stilts and unicycles where the space allows.
• Mats for anything that leaves the ground.
• A plan built round your year groups and your timetable, not a stock session.
• A risk assessment and method statement written for your site.

What the school supplies

• The space, cleared before we arrive.
• Staff to stay with the group. We work to a strict never-work-alone policy, so with one of our leaders we ask for at least two members of school staff throughout. Where possible, enough staff for around 12–15 children per adult. Joining in is welcome.
• Parking or a drop off point close to the door. There is a lot of kit.
• Children in PE kit or something they can move in, and bare feet or trainers.
• Access to a toilet and somewhere to fill a water bottle.

If it rains

Everything in the standard day works indoors, so rain does not cancel anything. Only two things need a weather call: stilts outdoors, and any aerial rigging on an outdoor frame. We make that call with you the week before and again on the morning, and swap in indoor activities if we need to. Aerial can work inside, in your activity or sports hall, because we have freestanding trapeze rigs of various sizes.

Accessibility and SEND

Circus is unusually good at this, because there is no single right way to do any of it and nobody starts ahead. We offer specialist sessions tailored for SEND pupils, and we regularly work with SEND schools. Sessions can include:

• Shorter rotations, or a quiet space a child can step out to and come back from.
• No music, or music kept low.
• Seated versions of many activities are possible.
• Warning before anything loud or sudden, and no surprises in the sharing.
• A tutor briefed on specific children by name, where you want that.
• Wheelchair users fully included: juggling, plate spinning and diabolo all work seated.

Nobody is made to perform. There is always another job going: counting, calling, holding, coaching someone else. Children who will not touch a juggling ball in the first hour often run the sharing by the end of the day.

Safeguarding, DBS and insurance

• Every tutor who works in a school holds an enhanced DBS check with a children’s barred list check. We hold a current certificate for every tutor.
• We work to a written safeguarding policy, available on request. Our safeguarding lead is Philip Marken, and we name him in the booking paperwork too.
• Our staff are all trained in dealing with disclosures, and have a rigorous set of procedures to follow if they receive a disclosure or suspect abuse.
• We have a strict never-work-alone policy: there are at least three adults with the group at all times. With one of our leaders, the school provides at least two members of staff throughout. With two or more of our leaders, we still prefer at least two adults from the school to stay with the group. Where possible, please provide enough staff for a ratio of around 12–15 children per adult.
• We hold public liability insurance up to £10 million and send the certificate with the booking paperwork.
• A risk assessment and method statement for your site comes with the same pack, written for your hall and your year groups rather than lifted from a template.

The approval checklist

There is a one page summary to share with your planning team: the specifics of your event, what we bring, what the school supplies, the paperwork, and the five questions every head teacher asks. We email it to you when you confirm your entry to the draw. It is not on the site as a public download, because it is written for you and not for a search engine.

Enter the draw and we will send it, or email hello@yorkshirecircus.co.uk and ask, and we will send it anyway. We’ll reply within one working day, and send the quote, paperwork and plan once we’ve confirmed the final details with you.

Where the money goes

Yorkshire Circus is a social circus organisation, and the money goes into keeping creative arts facilities open. All surpluses are reinvested: into maintaining and running training facilities for our artists, community arts facilities where the public can learn circus, and good quality, well paid gig opportunities for our artists, performers and learners.