Hi I’m Steph, I’m a facilitator with Bonanza Creative and I cover the North West region of England. My morning usually starts with a good breakfast and a cup of coffee! As a facilitator I drive all over the place, so I get into my car and put on some music to get my energy going for the day, I normally have a little karaoke sing along on my journey to work!
When I arrive to the school I sign in, get my DBS and ID checked and then make my way to the classroom, or the hall if I’m delivering an assembly. Once I’m in the classroom, I get everything set up and introduce myself to the class. I like to make the groups I work with feel comfortable and interested, so I often use lots of high energy and humour in my sessions to encourage lots of smiles!
I deliver a few different workshops with Bonanza we have Safety Seymour for year 2 & 3, CO Crew for year 5 & 6 and NRG Mission for KS2. It’s nice to have some variety and some weeks I could be doing a mix of everything!
I love delivering the workshops as they are filled with drama and theatre focused activities, and as a former actor, I’m passionate about bringing drama to young people! In Safety Seymour, we go back in time to the Victorian Era as chimney sweepers, to make sure the chimney is clear so CO can safely go outside from the fireplace. The children really love becoming a character and having a mission to complete, every class I do this activity with gets very excited and really immerses themselves in the world we’ve created.
Another activity I enjoy in our other workshop, CO Crew is when I get the class to come up with some moves to show that you can’t detect CO. This is always really fun as the kids get super creative with their ideas and I even get the teacher involved! I also enjoy watching the class create their own recap performances of the safety messages they’ve learnt, I’ve seen some super cool raps, some very dramatic reenactments of a boiler not working, and even news reports with interviews.
We usually have a morning break so we can all have a snack and a drink before starting again, this is where I go to the staff room, make a brew and have a little chat with the teachers as they are always curious about why I’m there! We carry on after the break and finish off our workshop, where I tell the children about the fun resources they get to take home with them, then it’s time for lunch! I head back to the staff room and chill with the teachers for an hour!
After lunch, I go to my next session with another class and set up again, sometimes it’s the same workshop as the morning, sometimes it’s a completely different one. At the end of my second session, I wave goodbye to the class and their teacher, sign out and drive back home, ready to start it all over again the next day!
I find it so rewarding to see the children get enthusiastic about the creative learning they are doing. I often get teachers coming up to me telling me that their class has remembered everything and had a brilliant time in their session.
It makes me happy to know it’s making a positive impact within a classroom and beyond. It’s a lovely feeling knowing that a bit of creativity and theatre can help children remember something so important that they can share with their grown-ups to keep their families safe!
