Primary Schools

"Whenever I looked into the hall, the children, whether they were Nursery or Year 6, were just spellbound by your Ashputtel workshop. You engaged them so completely."

Headteacher

"To see my son concentrating like that on stage was just marvellous. This has been such a positive experience for him.  He has found a way to show us what he can really do!"

Parent

"It was so inspiring! The students totally understood why they were doing the drama activities afterwards and loved it. I'm going to use lots more drama in my lessons now I've seen how effective it is!"

Newly Qualified Primary Teacher

"It's amazing to think they could make something that looked that professional in only 5 hours. It's so different from the kind of drama they're used too. Fantastic!"

Parent

Brave Bold Drama is often found in primary schools, supporting the curriculum, running extra-curricular devising residencies and delivering Arts Award courses. We supported two Withywood primaries during 2020/21 as The Company of International Artists and worked with primary aged children at Hartcliffe Club for Young People to make a Window Wanderland in November 2021.

Curriculum Support

See also Cracking the Egg Conundrum, commissioned by Parson Street Primary School in 2019. We devised a week of performance interventions to promote creative writing.

"Thank you for the Mrs Pepys' Diary workshops. They absolutely loved it. It really brought the event to life for them and then helped with their extended writing. Brilliant!"

Year 3 teacher

"Thank you for the Vera Brittain workshop. It was quite uncanny when you first appeared in our classroom in the Nurse's uniform. Using photographs of the actual people you were telling us about really helped them realise this actually happened."

Year 5 teacher

"You kept even our more challenging students completely focused and engaged for the entire 90 minutes! They have loved making their own Year 6 Haka and are very proud of it. They're excited about performing it at their final assembly when they say goodbye to the rest of the school!"

Headteacher

Devising Residencies

We run devising residencies in primary schools, usually between 5-10 weeks in length and work with children from reception up to Year 6. We start from scratch every time, and the children create a show that matters to them. At the end friends and families are invited to watch.

We have made shows about the First World War, Indian myths, Ancient Greek monsters and The Importance of Bedtime Stories with children from Reception to Year 6.

"The juniors’ play Turn Back and Look Beneath was strikingly emotive. I can’t believe how much you achieved in only 5 weeks!  It is lovely that the students have developed the content themselves. Brilliant!”

Parent

"Whenever I see you rehearsing the children the atmosphere is buzzing, exciting but also really professional.  You demand high standards and the children respond so well."

Headteacher

Arts Award

We are an accredited Arts Award centre and can deliver both Explore and Discover Arts Award courses.

In March 2021 we ran a remote Arts Award Discover course online with students at Fouracres Primary in Withywood in role as the Company of International Artists. Read more about this.

We also worked with students from Fouracres Primary in 2019 who all successfully achieved an Arts Award in August 2019. As part of their course, they worked with a visual artist, Laura Humpage from Colourful Minds and learned about collage techniques.

Brave Bold Drama has been named as a Trinity Champion Centre 2021/22 for our successful delivery of Arts Award qualifications.

Trinity College London is a leading international exam board and independent education charity that specialises in the assessment of communicative and performance skills covering music, drama, combined arts and English language.

Trinity Champion Centres inspire other organisations by sharing their practice and advocating for accreditation in their communities and more widely.

Company of International Artists
supporting children's creativity during lockdown & beyond

"It was exciting to watch somebody who was so confident and different to us. They were silly and creative."
Year 5 student

"They gave us lots of ideas to take away and use. I wish I could stay next year so I could see them again."
Year 6 student

"I'm going to look up some of the artists they spoke about so I can recreate their work."
Year 6 student

"I've received a CIA pack via my daughter's school and I just wanted to extend my thanks to you directly. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of stuff you put in each box. We have started mission 1 and my 6 year old is loving it. What a lovely thing to do. Thank you again, you've been very generous."
Parent

Between April and October 2020 we worked in partnership with two local primary schools Merchants' Academy and Fouracres Academy in Withywood to support over 80 children aged 8-12 who were in receipt of free school meals to enjoy being creative at home.

Kindly funded by Quartet Community Foundation and Arts Council England, the Company of International Artists began in April 2020, and has been used to deliver creative opportunities to primary schools ever since.

We designed a range of themed creative activities presented as Creative Missions. These included opportunities to make visual art, music and creative writing at home. The kit boxes provide the children with all the materials needed to complete the missions, and the missions do not require internet access.

We created short films to introduce each mission. Children without digital access at home were able to watch these films at school before starting their missions.

This project developed into a commercial subscription service which we launched in November 2020. 
See more at www.companyofinternationalartists.com

Read about the CIA and other creative lockdown projects in Bristol 24/7 here

in Withywood and Hartcliffe

6th-19th December 2021

We worked with Hartcliffe Club for Young People in November, supporting young people to create window displays for their homes. The young people had complete freedom to design their window display however they wished.