The future

An arts-rich education provides skills for life and work, boosts self-confidence and improves educational outcomes, enabling young people to fulfil their potential.

We work directly with 706 schools globally and our nationwide learning programmes are active in all 48 English Counties and every Local Authority in the UK.

In addition, we provide UK state schools with free access to our digital teaching resources, ensuring 1.3 million UK students have access to world-class theatre to stream on-demand in every classroom.

Our programmes for young people and youth groups champion the talent of the next generation.

Every year, Connections commissions new plays for young people to perform in our nationwide youth theatre festival. We provide all the support to help 250 groups stage their chosen play at one of our 36 partner theatres across the UK.

New Views is our year-long in-school playwrighting programme. The programme includes professional mentoring and the chance for students’ to see their work performed at the National Theatre.

We create opportunities to learn from the best in the business.

Our Young People’s programmes are in-depth opportunities for 13-21 year olds to develop their practical skills for the wide variety of roles on and off stage in theatre.

This includes our Young Producers programme, our Space to Create workshops, and the Young Technicians course.

Without doubt, I wouldn’t be working as a professional theatre technician now if I hadn’t taken part in the programme.

A participant in the Young Technicians course

We help to build essential skills, in the classroom.

Our Let’s Play programme helps primary schools embed creative learning across the curriculum – offering teachers and pupils the opportunity to see, make and learn through theatre.

Let’s Perform supports teachers to put on amazing school plays, with preparation for the show woven through lessons across a variety of subject areas.

Elsewhere, our Speak Up programme works with young people in 56 secondary schools in our Theatre Nation Partnership areas. Working with young people most affected by inequalities, we help them to develop their confidence and leadership skills.

89% of UK state secondary schools stream our shows for free.

Our streaming platform for schools, universities and libraries, National Theatre Collection, makes amazing British theatre available for students and teachers around the world.

It’s one of the ways that we’re supporting teachers across the country to make a high-quality, creative education possible for all young people.

We also offer schools tickets, teaching resources and videos, and, in targeted areas, touring productions directly into school halls.

Discover our work with schools

We’re proud to support over 1000 teachers every year across the country.

Teachers are amazing. By investing in their training and professional development, those benefits ripple out to every young person that a teacher works with.

Many of the programmes we run with schools include professional training for teachers, helping them level up their skills and experience.

Our Drama Teacher Conference sees some of the country’s leading theatre-makers come together to inspire and explore current practice with drama teachers from across the country. Last year, over 200 teachers took part.

The conference gave me some ideas I can take away and use straight away with my classes.

Listening to and communicating with professionals in the industry is so important so that we can send out students out equipped with the same kind of vision and passion.

A teacher at the Drama Teacher Conference