The future
Find out how we reach over 100,000 individuals every year with our nationwide learning programmes.
Discover the impact theatre can have on young people’s lives
An arts-rich education provides skills for life and work, boosts self-confidence and improves educational outcomes, enabling young people to fulfil their potential.
We work directly with 706 schools globally and our nationwide learning programmes are active in all 48 English Counties and every Local Authority in the UK.
In addition, we provide UK state schools with free access to our digital teaching resources, ensuring 1.3 million UK students have access to world-class theatre to stream on-demand in every classroom.
Inspiring future theatre-makers
Our programmes for young people and youth groups champion the talent of the next generation.
Every year, Connections commissions new plays for young people to perform in our nationwide youth theatre festival. We provide all the support to help 250 groups stage their chosen play at one of our 36 partner theatres across the UK.
New Views is our year-long in-school playwrighting programme. The programme includes professional mentoring and the chance for students’ to see their work performed on stage at the National Theatre.
Whether or not participants go onto creative careers, these experiences help young people develop crucial social and practical skills, including teamwork, communication, research and independent working.
We create opportunities to learn from the best in the business.
Our Young People’s programmes are in-depth opportunities for 13-21 year olds to develop their practical skills for the wide variety of roles on and off stage in theatre.
This includes our Young Producers programme, our Space to Create workshops, and the Young Technicians course.
Without doubt, I wouldn’t be working as a professional theatre technician now if I hadn’t taken part in the programme.
A participant in the Young Technicians course
Learning through creativity
We help to build essential skills, in the classroom.
Our Let’s Play programme helps primary schools embed creative learning across the curriculum – offering teachers and pupils the opportunity to see, make and learn through theatre.
The Let’s Perform strand supports teachers to put on amazing school plays, while preparation for the show is woven through lessons in a variety of subject areas.
Elsewhere, our co-creation programme Speak Up works with young people in 55 secondary schools in our Theatre Nation Partnership areas. Working with young people most affected by inequalities, we help them to develop their confidence and leadership skills.
Developing oracy and literacy through storytelling.
We created our free oracy and creative literacy project, Story Seekers, in response to the pandemic.
We’re focusing on supporting children to develop their communication and language skills, and to reconnect with their school communities.
Story Seekers challenges children to embark on a quest to find and share what they feel are the most important stories. Including workshops and performances with professional storytellers, teachers follow a scheme of work developed in partnership with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
This has really helped their speaking and their listening… and helped to develop their ability to collaborate, which had suffered due to lockdown.
Year 5 teacher, Story Seekers
The National Theatre is a registered charity. Your support can help hundreds of thousands of people experience the joy of theatre.
Supporting teachers
88% of UK state secondary schools streaming our shows for free.
Our streaming platform for schools, universities and libraries, National Theatre Collection, makes amazing British theatre available for students and teachers around the world.
It’s one of the ways that we’re supporting teachers across the country to make a high-quality, creative education possible for all young people.
We also offer schools tickets, teaching resources and videos, and, in targeted areas, touring productions directly into school halls.
We’re proud to support over 1000 teachers every year across the country.
Teachers are amazing. By investing in their training and professional development, those benefits ripple out to every young person that a teacher works with.
Many of the programmes we run with schools include professional training for teachers, helping them level up their skills and experience.
Our Drama Teacher Conference sees some of the country’s leading theatre-makers come together to inspire and explore current practice with drama teachers from across the country. Last year, over 200 teachers took part.
The conference gave me some ideas I can take away and use straight away with my classes.
Listening to and communicating with professionals in the industry is so important so that we can send out students out equipped with the same kind of vision and passion.
A teacher at the Drama Teacher Conference
More to explore
Discover more of our work with audiences, theatre-makers, and communities across the UK.
Global reach
We entertain audiences across the UK and around the world. Making world-class theatre accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Skilled makers
We invest in the UK’s creative industries, creating opportunities for freelance theatre-makers to develop the next generation of talent.
Community partnerships
We build sustained partnerships with theatres and community organisations who believe theatre can be a force for change.