Teaching the Reluctant Drama Class

Games, tips and classroom management to get students volunteering and up on their feet

Thursday 28 January 2027, 7pm to 8.30pm (UK time) · Live online · £20.  Or 20% off Early Bird Offer £16. 

Hands used to shoot up when I asked who'd like to perform. Now, in a lot of classrooms, they don't. Teachers tell me the same thing again and again: students don't want to get up and improvise like they used to. They've become more inhibited, and more afraid of what the others might think. A class like that can make even an experienced drama teacher doubt themselves.

This 90-minute session is about turning that around. I'll share the games, routines and management tricks I've used over almost twenty years of teaching to get a hesitant class out of their seats and into the work, without anyone being pushed to perform before they're ready.

We'll cover:

• Why students are more reluctant than they were, and what that means for how we teach
• Whole-group games where everyone is up at once and nobody is being watched
• How to build towards volunteering: pair work before solo work, the pass rule, and low-stakes ways to say yes
• Classroom management for the drama room: getting everyone in the circle, a signal for silence, positive discipline, and what to do when a group goes flat or goes wild

Everything is practical. You'll come away with a bank of games you can use the next morning, drawn from my books 100 Acting Exercises for 8–18 Year Olds, Acting Games for Improv and Focus Games for the Classroom, along with the thinking behind them so you can adapt them for your own students. There'll be time for your questions at the end.

Who it's for: drama teachers in primary and secondary schools, drama club and youth theatre leaders, franchise teachers (Stagecoach, PQA and the like), and any teacher who uses drama and has a class. Pitched at teachers of 8- to 18-year-olds.

Details
When: Thursday 28 January 2027, 7pm to 8.30pm (UK time)
Where: Live online. You'll be sent the link after booking.
Cost: £20 

Early Bird Offer £16, runs out 31st Dec