Our activities
Professional artists from West Africa able to teach African Workshops For Schools – a wide variety of art forms
Authentic African workshops
Our practitioners are all professionals in their field, bringing true excellence into your classroom. It is possible to include a student led question and answer session within each lesson – enabling your practitioner to become an interactive learning resource. There are no right or wrong questions and you would be surprized at the amazing and insightful things we have been asked!
Please remember you can mix and match all of our activities, add assemblies and add a performance to parents at the end of the school day – often these adjustments can be made at no extra cost.
What African Activities can we do?
African drumming!
An engaging and fun way to get everyone working in rhythm. Everyone gets a drum to play on for each workshop.
Dance schools!
High energy but easy to follow moves. A really fun way to get a full body workout!
Recycling workshops!
Learn about the world largest e-waste dump and turn milk bottles into useful objects, masks, elephants or birds.
Gender stereotypes
Did you know that there are Matrilineal societies in West Africa where property descends through the female line? Did you know there is a strong history of female warriors in West Africa and the Caribbean? A rediscovery through discussion and debate.
Poverty of aspiration
An inspirational workshop based on drama, story and the drum. Whilst poverty of circumstance is higher in Africa poverty of aspiration is relatively unheard of. An exploration of the fear of succeeding in Britain and issues surrounding a lack of motivation.
BHM
Black History Month specialists, we have covered many issues and are happy to work with you. Previous topics include: Slavery, the creation of ‘Africa’, racism, Black people in Britain, The Windrush, South African emancipation and much more.
Painting
Working with Kwame who was the artist in residence at Ghana’s Centre For National Culture. Learn his unique style and recreate paintings with your own twist.
Pottery schools
Explore African traditional pottery artefacts and then set about making your own. Learn a simple coil technique and then use Adinkra to decorate your pots.
Storytelling workshops
Learn about Anasi the cheeky West African Spider. Question and answer sessions facilitate student led learning, bring Africa right into your classroom.
Adinkra
Explore a wide variety of cloths from Ghana. Learn about Adinkra symbols and the proverbs the represent and make your own cloth to take home or to form a large installation within school.
Kente
Explore a wide variety of cloths from West African including Kente one of the most famous and expensive. Looms mean there is a 15 student limit for this workshop.
Beads
Learn about the history of West Africa’s trade beads, explore some artefacts and make your own colourful beads from magazine and newspapers.
How do workshops work for you?
Timetable?
Our team will work with you to get the best outcome to reach your objectives.
A session can be from 7 separate classes a day or we can work intensively with one class.
Students?
As standard we work with a class at a time, if you have space we are happy to work with larger groups. Dance, song and storytelling lend themselves to this.
Class length?
We recommend classes of 60 minutes, though 40 is possible.
We are very happy to work on longer more in depth projects and installations
Mixing activities?
Depending on the practitioner available you may mix in as many activities as you have time for. There is no additional charge for this so why not follow an arty morning with a musical afternoon?
Whats needed?
Very Little! Your African arts teacher will bring all of the materials for your workshop. The exception to this is recycling. We can bring materials but we feel the collection is a valuable part of the process for the children
How much?
Options run from 50p – £16 per student. Please fill out our quick quote form and we will get right back to you with a proposal for an African workshop in your school.
What our customers say
“Informative, lively and culturally fascinating, a fantastic experience.”
“Knowledgeable and professional approach, whilst fully engaging the students with enthusiasm. ”