Tes brings ‘chance of a lifetime’ experiences to classrooms when curriculum funding is at an all-time low

November 2022

At a time when schools are struggling financially, where school budgets are being squeezed by the crippling cost of energy and pressures on teacher pay, school leaders need support more than ever with quality teaching resources. That pressure is coupled with the challenge of delivering the new, expanded ‘national curriculum’ where Ofsted is looking for evidence of ‘cultural capital’.

A recent Tes poll showed that 70% of teachers feared that spending cuts forced by rising costs were likely to prevent them from delivering the broad and balanced curriculum required this year. 

Tes has partnered with a select number of brands to deliver curriculum-linked lessons with a twist – offering students all over the country new and exciting content across a range of subjects.

These easy-to-use video lessons are designed to supplement the new curriculum, giving students opportunities to enhance their learning and teachers the chance to extend their offerings on important topics.

The live lesson programme kicks off on Thursday 13th October, with the first lesson available to schools on PE, Music and Performing Arts. The lesson is a magical experience facilitated by Disney Theatrical Teaching Artists, delivered ‘live’ from Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London. The lesson, aimed at Key Stage Two students, offers a physical warm-up and then guides them through a whole singing and dancing routine to a song from the critically-acclaimed West End production, Disney’s Frozen The Musical.  A full lesson plan with learning objectives and follow-up work has been written by a curriculum expert and accompanies the Live Lesson.

It was widely reported that subjects like PE and Drama took a hit during the pandemic, while there were challenges with providing them due to the restrictions and staffing. Now, post-pandemic, with the remaining challenges of catch-up for core subjects like Maths and English, and the huge difficulties schools are having with their budgets, delivering these subjects is getting even harder.

Nancy Shakerley, Education & Audience Engagement Manager at Disney Theatrical Group UK said “Disney Theatrical Productions knows how important subjects such as drama and PE are for children at this age and how they value having these types of active and different experiences. Not every school can get to a local theatre to access workshops like this, so by teaming up with Tes, Frozen the Musical is delighted to be taking this experience into classrooms all over the UK”.

Sara White, Principal of Bovington Academy part of the Aspirations Academy Trust, said: "We welcome this easy-to-deliver, interactive curriculum-linked content. At Bovington we know how valuable these experiences are for our students and constantly strive to offer these types of lessons to them. Tes are providing it in such an easy format which is a real gift. Many of our students would not have access to do this type of thing without this programme."

Havva Baskal, Head of Partnerships at Tes, added “Our recent poll of over 600 teachers showed that schools are under immense pressure to deliver the new enhanced curriculum with the funding they currently have. Any help schools can get with high-quality in-school experiences to enhance pupils’ learning is going to be so valuable.
“We saw a shift in how schools use online and video lesson content during the pandemic. It is right that schools should continue to adopt this type of content as part of their teaching: after all, it’s the pupils and their outcomes that ultimately benefit.”