COVID-19 FAQs

You can download a pdf copy of our 'COVID-19 Safer Working Practice', 'COVID-19 Risk Assessment' and 'Children's Shakespeare Festivals Timeline and Notes for 2020/21'.

Are you planning to deliver your work this year, given the restrictions placed upon schools?

Yes. We think drama and creativity are going to be a hugely important part of the ‘recovery curriculum’ for many schools. We believe we are able to work in a safe way, and as long as this is the case we will offer our work (albeit perhaps delivered in a slightly different way) to schools during 2020/21. Please see our COVID-19 Safe Working Practice information for more. If for some reason this becomes untenable, we will take whatever action is deemed appropriate.

Is it possible to do drama with social distancing in place?

We firmly believe it is. We were able to visit a few schools during the later party of the summer term, which was a very useful opportunity to explore what might be possible. Now, when schools fully reopen, we’re visiting several more schools to build on our safe working practice with larger groups of pupils. It's anticipated that guidance regarding physical contact between members of a 'bubble' will change over time, and we'll be ensuring that our practice remains safe at all times.

Read more about the measures we're taking to mitigate risk around our work in schools, Children's Shakespeare Festivals and Speech Bubbles.

Will the Children’s Shakespeare Festival residential be delivered in person or online (via Zoom or similar)?

Whilst many CPD events are currently taking place via Zoom or other video conferencing platforms (including Speech Bubbles), due to the immersive nature of the Children’s Shakespeare Festival residential it won’t be possible to deliver this without everyone being present in the same space. We hope that we can run a non-residential event if the full residentials are not possible, but we’ll know more in the coming weeks.

If theatres don’t fully reopen in time, how will the final performance take place?

We hope we will soon know more about this, as all indications are that the timeline for reopening will be made public in November. The fact that theatres are considered a high risk environment means that it is possible that we will be unable to hold a final performance in theatres, or that children may not be permitted to go on off-site excursions. There are a number of ways in which we might be able to deliver a distanced, outdoor, or digital performance (perhaps even a blend of live and digital performance), but this decision will be taken nearer the time and, of course, with the full agreement of participating schools.

How will you mitigate the risk of financially committing to a project which may be interrupted due to further restrictions?

After last year's work was suspended due to schools closing, we've put in a place special arrangements for invoicing and payment for 2020/21 to better ensure schools aren't at financial risk. North West Drama are, as always, incredibly grateful for the support (financial and otherwise) of our schools, who have helped us ensure we can continue to work with you to support the use of drama in the classroom and help to develop a creative and humanising curriculum recovery curriculum in a post-COVID world. Whilst it's impossible to insure against events which might force us to suspend our work in the future, we hope that the the system

If you have any questions or require further information on any aspects of our COVID-19 safe working practice, please email matt@northwestdramaservices.co.uk.