If you are used to putting on a nativity or festive show at your school, you will already know the many benefits it has on school life – hearing classrooms and the hall ring with children’s voices for weeks as they practise the songs again and again; having all members of staff involved in the making of the set, costumes and props; bringing children, staff and parents together for the annual joyous celebration… the list goes on.
But here are a few other ideas you might like to consider, to bring your performance to the wider community:
- Did you know that you can use Sparkyard’s Share Link feature to enable children and even parents/carers to practise the songs at home? Why not have one (or more!) of your Christmas production songs with audience participation?. You can find out more about the Share Link feature here.
- Alternatively (or additionally!), have one or more songs with all members of staff joining in (the teachers, caretaker, lunchtime supervisors, office staff).
- Is there a local brass/silver band or choir you could invite to join in too? Or any visiting instrumental teachers you might have at your school?
- Take your whole production or just a few songs to perform at your nearest care home, church, feeder infant or nursery school.
- Arrange a ‘pop up’ performance (we love this one!) of a few songs in the high street, library, local historic building, garden centre or supermarket or even at your local Christmas lights switching-on event.
- Many of Out of the Ark’s nativities come with either Makaton or BSL signing videos – our newly published The Twinkly Nativity has signing videos for ALL the songs! Is there a local SEN school or community group you could collaborate with?
- We know that many schools have to restrict numbers of tickets to performances due to indoor space. Why not consider performing in your local town hall, secondary school hall or church instead? Or even putting on a performance outside, in your school grounds or (empty!) car park? Or the very ambitious might like to try setting the production around the town or village, with each class performing their scene in a different place. (The Magical Christmas Jigsaw, Baubles!, Straw and Order, and Super Star would work brilliantly here, as each class can rehearse their own section separately.)
- Are there any local businesses who could be involved? For example, a company that makes sheds or benches could donate a prop, or an estate agents could donate ‘For Sale’ boards to become inn signs. Enlist the help of your school’s PTA to contact them; such partnerships may prove fruitful in the future too. Don’t forget to invite them along to your performance!
- Your school may already film their production for fundraising purposes but if not, this is a great way of allowing family and friends further afield to see all the hard work and talent on display! (Permission would be required from all parents. Copyright permission from Out of the Ark is included in your Annual Performance Licence.) You can find lots of tips in our blog here.
- If not all of your children can be filmed, why not send out an audio recording instead, perhaps with your school’s end-of-term newsletter or digital Christmas card?
We hope that one or more of these ideas will spark your imagination and help to bring the joy of the school Christmas play to even more members of your local community! We always love to hear from you so do let us know what has worked for your school. You can email us your photos or tag us on social media: @outofthearkmusic on Instagram and Facebook, @singoutoftheark on X (Twitter).
