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Day Workshops

Polka’s experienced team of actors, directors, storytellers and puppeteers are on hand to deliver a range of workshops in your school.

Whether it’s a puppet-making session exploring your favourite pets, a storytelling masterclass to celebrate World Book Day, a drama workshop discovering the wonderful women who have changed history or a chance to develop your poetry skills – we will create a bespoke workshop for you and your pupils. 

Take a look below to see some of our most popular workshops, or get in touch to discuss an original idea.

“The children were really engaged with the workshop and loved making their pop up puppets.”

Teacher from Sunnyhill Primary, October 2023 

Show-related Workshops

Our Polka show-related workshops explore the themes and production elements from our Polka Productions.  Post-Show workshops can be held in the afternoons at Polka after your children have watched a show, or they can be held at your school either before or after coming to the theatre.

Show-related workshops come at a 15% discount when booked alongside show tickets. Speak to our Box Office team to discuss your booking.

📞 020 8543 4888 | 📧 [email protected]

Workshop Time: Minimum 45 minutes

Sensory Stories

Bring your favourite books to life with an interactive story session!

Our practitioners will use music, sounds, lights, toys, games and sensory elements to transport your class to a fictional world, get to know the characters they read about, and live the events of the story for themselves.

Workshop Time: 30 to 60 minutes

Puppetry Workshops

Join our professional puppet and prop makers as they deliver workshops exploring either rod puppets, hand puppets, junk puppets, two dimensional puppets or the art of object manipulation. Focusing on a theme or a book you are working on in class, we can work with your group to create their own individual puppets and learn how to bring them to life.

An additional charge of £1 per child will be applied for puppet making workshops to cover the cost of resources and materials.

Workshop Time: Minimum 1 hour

Page to Stage Workshops

Step into the shoes of characters from your favourite books!

Polka Practitioners will work with your students to adapt and stage a performance of your class set text, improving comprehension and critical reasoning.

Workshop Time: 1 hour to 1 week

Create a Play in a Day

Our Director visits your class and works with them throughout the day to devise a play. We can focus on a specific theme or aspect of the curriculum and using improvisation, role play and storytelling techniques, use drama to explore other areas of learning. Work as a team to create a piece of theatre that can be performed to peers and teachers at the end of the school day.

Workshop Time: 2.5 hours to 1 week

Tailor-made Workshops

We can create a workshop for you and your class. Polka’s dedicated Creative Learning team can make a workshop to suit any theme, topic or book you are working on. This list has some workshop suggestions, but whatever you are studying we will work with you to bring the curriculum to life in a tailor-made workshop.

From the Archive: Polka Book Adaptations

We’re happy to bring any book to life for your students but, if you’re looking for some inspiration, why not try a workshop based on one of Polka’s past book adaptations?

Inspired by our Main Stage and Adventure Theatre productions, we can deliver either sensory storytelling sessions or drama workshops based on any of the following stories. You will also receive a digital resource pack, full of curriculum-linked activities to extend learning.

  • Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Ghosts by Katie & Kevin Tsang
  • ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’
  • ‘Tidy’ by Emily Gravett
  • ‘The Everywhere Bear’ by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb
  • ‘The Lost Spells’ by Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris
  • ‘The Paper Dolls’ by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb
  • ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ by Hans Christian Andersen
  • ‘How to Hide a Lion’ by Helen Stephens

Mental Health & Wellbeing Workshops

Inspired by Professor Barry Carpenter’s Recovery Curriculum, Polka has developed a series of workshops to focus specifically on mental health and wellbeing. These workshops sensitively explore the many questions, concerns and worries that children may be facing. During the sessions, the children will creatively explore ways in which they can embrace their emotions, share and process their thoughts and feelings, and become more resilient to changes to their world.

Get in touch to book a practitioner-led workshop, or head to our Teacher Hub to access our free video lessons.

Workshop Time: 45 minutes to 2 hours

School workshops can take place at Polka or at your school!

For any enquiries please use the link to our booking form or get in touch with our Schools Team.

Booking Form Get in Touch

Polka Theatre, 240 The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19 1SB

Box office 020 8543 4888

[email protected]

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