Video · Teachers Media
The Circus Comes to School Video
A visiting circus workshop is one of those enrichment activities that can be genuinely transformative for pupils — building confidence, physical skill, and cooperation — or a fun-but-forgettable day if the follow-through isn't planned. What separates the two is usually the pedagogy around the event, not the event itself.
About this video
External enrichment activities — theatre visits, artists in residence, sports coaches, circus workshops, museum trips — are widely valued and increasingly rare in a tightening school-funding environment. Where they still happen, the schools that get the most from them tend to plan the pedagogy around the event as carefully as the event itself. The visit is a spark; the learning is in what surrounds it.
For circus specifically, the physical skills involved (juggling, plate spinning, balance work, silks and aerial where appropriate) develop coordination, focus, and — importantly — the willingness to fail publicly and keep trying. Pupils who are used to being "not good at" things academically sometimes discover they can do something physical that surprises them. That psychological shift can carry into other areas.
The other reliable finding is that pupils who help less-confident pupils learn something in these settings develop teaching skills of their own. A Year 6 pupil who explains three-ball juggling to a Year 3 pupil is doing complex pedagogical work — breaking down a skill, giving feedback, adjusting language. Circus workshops that build in cross-age teaching often produce more learning than pure participation would.
Getting the most from a visit
- Frame it beforehand. Pupils know what to expect, what skills they'll try, and what will be asked of them.
- Debrief afterwards. What did each pupil find hardest? What did they surprise themselves by being able to do?
- Cross-age teaching. Older pupils help younger ones. Both learn more.
- Connect to other curriculum. Circus skills link to physics (balance, momentum), maths (patterns in juggling), history (circus as cultural form), literacy (writing about the experience).
- Photograph and revisit. Pupils return to the images weeks later and remember what they did.
Discussion prompts
- When your school runs an enrichment activity, how much time is invested in the pedagogy around it — before and after?
- Which of your pupils comes alive in enrichment activities but is quieter in ordinary lessons? What does that tell you?
- How could a physical or creative visit connect back to your curriculum in a way that isn't forced but is genuinely additive?
Try this in your classroom
- For your next external visit, plan explicit pre- and post-work. Notice how much more the pupils get from the visit.
- Structure part of an enrichment activity around older pupils teaching younger ones a specific skill. Watch both groups.
- Ask pupils to write one sentence about something they did in the enrichment activity that they didn't know they could do. Display them on the wall.