How our method works

Our U-CandU workshops are entertaining and engaging, but above all educational.

Working with over fifty schools, we have developed a range of novel techniques for using the performing arts to effortlessly 'make the penny drop'. Previously mystifying ideas suddenly become clear and further learning becomes hugely accelerated.

These workshops are no "nice to have" extra curricular activities and although they are most definitely fun for the children they have been carefully created to improve results in specific school subjects.

We start with a survey to establish levels of understanding of the topic in question, and finish with a performance that brings together everything the children have learned. This enables them, us and their teachers to quantify their improvement in understanding and attainment, individually and as a group.

During the workshops the children take a journey during which they learn and deepen their understanding, by thinking, exploring, experimenting and putting their findings into practice. We use art, choreography, movement, drama, music and athletic skills to develop their mental skills, problem-solving capabilities and understanding of key issues.

By making the students active participants, the subjects become "real" not abstract, solvable not fear-inducing. Equally importantly, we engender self-belief and self-esteem by instilling an "I can do it" attitude - and enabling the children to prove to themselves that indeed, they can!

In just a few hours we achieve significant and lasting positive changes in attitudes towards learning. It's challenging, but it's always fun too!
 

Primary Schools - Maths, English, Science, History....

We use an integrated mix of performing arts strategies and techniques to teach and strengthen children's understanding of particular subjects. Our approach is flexible and can be applied to almost any Key Stage 1-2 subject that children need help understanding.

Here are some examples of how U-CandU works with Key Stage 1-2 core subjects:

Dance Mathematics - Maths

Children explore mathematical concepts by thinking, exploring, experimenting and putting their findings into practice. These "games" develop their number skills and understanding of geometry. Choreography reinforces their understanding of numbers - odd, even, subtraction, multiplication etc., while drama-based techniques - such as life pictures and living cubes - stimulate sequential appreciation and build on their understanding of geometric shapes. Numbers become "real" rather than abstract, and Maths becomes a subject they prove to themselves they indeed can do!

Carnival of Animals - English

This fun session develops children's language, storytelling and drama capabilities. In just a couple of hours, the children create and act out characters, with voices and scripts, music and choreography, exploring how they would behave in different circumstances. We combine all these elements in a short performance at the end of the session to help increase children's confidence and presentational skills. Participation is the key to increasing the children's understanding of the many language facets they have just experienced. We can apply this method to any story or text being studied.

Walking On The Moon - Science

An accessible exploration of "heavyweight" scientific concepts, focusing on energy, gravity and gases - what they are and the effects they have on us - in the context of the planets. What would it be like walking on the moon? Or moving on Saturn where everything is twenty times heavier than on earth? How hot is the sun? And how do we experience its heat? This new-found knowledge sinks in because students reach their own logical conclusions. Nobody is telling them what to think. They act out their conclusions through movement, art, mini-dramas, music, games and team-building - rather than primarily through language - thereby avoiding the negatives associated with how difficult science may appear.

Fees:	From £2.40 per child, per workshop
Duration:	Typically one school day with 3 separate workshops
Participants:	Up to 90 children per day, with up to 30 per workshop

 

Secondary Schools - Maths, English, Science, History....

We use an integrated mix of performing arts strategies and techniques to teach and strengthen students' understanding of particular subjects. Our approach is flexible and can be applied to almost any Key Stage 3-4 subject that students need help understanding.

Here are some examples of how U-CandU works with Key Stage 3-4 core subjects:

Life Cubes - Maths

This workshop focuses on geometry, areas and shapes, and is adapted to school years and understanding levels. It uses innovative participation ideas to get the students to role play with numbers, shapes and sizes, in groups and as individuals. We use music and rhythm to create patterns and structures, and choreographed movement to act out what happens to shapes, and what, for example, multiplication and division really mean. We turn abstract theories into practical activities, and thereby confusion into comprehension.

Montague v Capulet: Whose Side Are You On? - English

Typically a workshop for Year 9 (Key Stage 3), it adapts our Heritage Lottery-funded work on identity and cultural awareness to explore issues relating to Romeo and Juliet. It enables students to simultaneously explore issues relating to their own feelings and identity - and those of the characters in the play - in a dramatic scenario of love and conflict. How would they really feel in the place of Romeo or Juliet, and how would their families react? What have the students experienced in their own lives?

By expressing themselves through movement, art, mini-dramas, music, games and team-building - rather than primarily through language - the workshop avoids the negative feelings some students may have about in-class processes. Most importantly, all of this is based on a textual extract through which we address curriculum tasks, including key words and their meanings, character evaluations, plot development, comparisons and contrasts etc. It's challenging, but fun too!

Walking On The Moon - Science

This is a workshop for Key Stage 3 students adapted to year groups and levels of understanding, making "heavyweight" scientific concepts accessible. We focus on energy, gravity and gases (what they are, what effects they have on us, what they do and how they do it) in the context of planets, geology and climate. What would it be like walking on the moon? Or moving on Saturn where everything is twenty times heavier than on earth? How hot is the sun? And how do we experience its heat? We enable students to really understand these concepts through experiments and visualisation on their own and in groups, thereby avoiding the negatives they may feel about how difficult science can be. As always with U-CandU, we turn abstracts into realities, feelings into actions and, in this instance, the planets into performance opportunities.

Fees:	From £3.50 per student, per workshop
Duration:	Typically one school day with 3 separate workshops
Participants:	Up to 90 students per day, with up to 30 per workshop

 

Special Needs

We pride ourselves in providing equal learning opportunities for children of all abilities, and understand that with particular groups or individuals, different approaches sometimes need to be applied to be effective.

Targeted Learning

All of our workshops can be tailored and adapted to target primary or secondary school students with special needs, for example those with learning difficulties, ESOL or behavioural issues. We tailor our mix of performing arts strategies and techniques to ensure that students can actively participate and that we can successfully teach or strengthen their understanding of particular subjects. Our approach is flexible and can be applied to almost any Key Stage 1-4 subjects with which Special Needs students require help understanding.

Contact us to discuss how we can tailor workshops
to meet the needs of your students.