5 ways to get your class excited for the new school year

4 September 2024

It is the start of another school year – you might have a new class, even a new classroom. You want to get to know your pupils, for the class to learn how to be together as a group and you need to establish your culture for learning. Check out some of our tips for quick ways to add some creativity to the start of the academic year and get your pupils excited to learn.

1. Start the year setting up creative thinking habits

Use some of our Teaching for Creativity resources to grab the attention of your pupils and cultivate a culture of creativity in your classroom. Not only do children find creative tasks a fun and engaging way to learn, but they also develop important life skills – no matter the curriculum subject! Check out our Taster Cards for short starters and team building activities such as stepping inside a picture, writing collaborative poems, or thinking of alternative uses for everyday objects.

Our Teaching for Creativity resources are also now searchable by format, subject and age.

Watch our Teaching for Creativity animation to find out more about what we mean by Teaching for Creativity.

2. Book a trip or a workshop visit

Get an arts and culture trip or workshop visit to your school booked in early – even if it happens later in the year, you get can let your pupils know at the start of the year that they have some fun to look forward to, and tailor some of your lessons in the lead up.

A New Direction’s Primary Arts Programme will be open for bookings on Wednesday 25 September 2024 for free opportunities open to Primary Schools in London.

Find inspiration on sites such as Plan My School Trip or magazines such as the NEU’s Educate, which is free to read online.

You can find out about other opportunities on our Look Up site and by signing up to our Schools newsletter.

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3. Be more playful

Routines and rules need to be established in the new school year – but that doesn’t mean your pupils can’t have fun while learning how to work well together! You can use games like Only Connect and Connection Maps from our Taster Card resources (Primary set) to help your class get to know each other.

We know that children learn through play, but it is easy to forget or to know how to fit it in when there is so many new things to get through. Listen to conversation highlights from episode 2 of A New Direction’s Critical Curriculum Podcast series, where arts practitioners Betsy Dadd (The Drawing Room) and Toby Peach (Coney) provide quick and easy tips for using play in the classroom, including the different types of play and how to play the game of Wah! 

Listen to the full episode

4. Get moving more

Are you practicing lining up or moving from the carpet to the table? Why not also get your pupils practicing how to move around more during lessons and activities too! Primary and Secondary age pupils would all benefit from having more opportunities to move around physically during the school day – it will help them stay focused and contribute to physical health.

It can be daunting asking your class to move around, especially in a small classroom space. To get started you can try out activities such as Four Corners, Pause for Thought and Machines of Learning from our Taster Card resources (Primary set).

You can hear more tips about how to get your children moving in our Critical Curriculum Podcast series episode 3, where Simon Pittman (Frantic Assembly) and Bryn Llewellyn (Tagtiv8 and Move & Learn CIC) share some quick and easy tips on how to encourage your students to get physically moving while learning at the same time. Hear some highlights from the episode below:

Listen to the full episode

“You might have your children sitting down for an hour but are they actually engaged for the hour? So maybe you need to break up the sedentary time, sitting down time, to refresh, to refocus. I know as an older child, I can’t sit down for an hour nowadays, 45 mins max depending on how exciting the football match is.” - Bryn Llewellyn

5. Utilise drama

When we think about drama in the classroom, the first thing that springs to mind is probably acting out a play, or ‘hot-seating’ as a character, which are great activities but there are lots of other quick and easy ways to add drama into your lessons if those frameworks don’t quite fit with what you want your pupils to achieve.

Hannah Joyce (teacher and creative facilitator) and Aileen Gonsalves (theatre practitioner, Butterfly Theatre) share drama games for the classroom in our Critical Curriculum Podcast series episode 1. Listen to their tips in a cut of the highlights here:

Listen to the full episode

You can also try class warm-up and team building activities from our Taster Cards (Primary set), such as Close Encounters which uses Mantle of the Expert and Tableau Tree. Lots of the Taster Card sets include drama, including our Climate Change & Sustainability and Diverse Arts & Literature sets. For longer lessons around drama, check out our Teaching for Creativity lesson plans Speeches That Changed the World and The Wellbeing Playlist.

Drama supports your pupils to communicate and learn to work together, and helps them to relax and feel energised - all while having fun, moving about and being creative!

What are your top ways for getting your pupils excited for the new school year? We’d love to hear your tips and favourite resources. Let us know on socials using #ANDCreativeTipsForLearning or email schools@anewdirection.org.uk