Circus skills for all ages

A Splats Circus Skills Day - Our circus skills days are devised by Steve Richards BEd PE as a way to improve confidence, coordination, teamwork and much more. They are such fun that the pupils do not realise the valuable training they are doing which will help them with their physical development and their learning skills.

• Circus skill assembly – A circus skills day starts with a fun assembly for the whole school. Our teacher will demonstrate the skills we are going to teach with plenty of fancy tricks to wow the pupils and teachers alike.
• Circus skills classes – We can then teach anything from one class for the whole day up to 7 classes
• Circus skills show - The day can finish with a circus show performed by your pupils. This works best if you have under 4 groups of pupils. Please do invite the parents along to this as what happens next really is the perfect finale.

• Family circus skills workshop - After school we can run a family circus skills workshop so parents, brothers and sisters, grandma, grandad, cats, dogs, can all join in. It gives the pupils the opportunity to teach their parents and celebrate the joy of learning new skills in a playful and lets be honest slightly silly environment.”

We can also put on King or Queen of the circus show. This involves the children learning the skills but at the same time developing a show for the parents at the end of the party.

The children are the stars in curly wigs,  rock star glasses, with of course the Splats safety chicken. Superb fun show that really helps bring everyone together.

I learned to juggle during my final year at teacher training and since then have never looked back. My dissertation was all about how juggling and other circus skills could be a way to get pupils involved in sports who may never have achieved success before. Alongside challenging, refining and improving all pupils physical skills.

Below is a brief explanation of what we teach and just some of the benefits.

Circus Skills Scarf juggling

Scarf juggling- slow moving enabling the pupils to catch even if they are nursery age and the older pupils and teachers to juggle 3 even if they think they can’t!

“It is this challenge to what we think we can do which is very easily highlighted with juggling. The learning process is right there in front of you. Pupils  learn the value of practice, breaking the skill down and gentle, appropriate effort.”

Circus skills ball juggling

Ball juggling – Learning to juggle 3 balls is a great skill to pass on. We always make sure we teach the basic pattern, even if the pupils are just throwing them up in the pattern and dropping. Letting the balls drop is the key to learning to juggle.

“What we may perceive as a mistake is in fact a vital part of learning to juggle. Firstly by letting the ball drop on purpose it relaxes the throw and eventually the catch just happens. Secondly without dropping you never make progress. A learning lesson for all other subjects.”

Circus skills Spinning Plate

Spinning Plate – Capture the imagination of children and adults without fail. Spin with your fingers, spin from the stick, balance on your hand, balance on your head.

“Plate spinning is a lovely way of teaching how to use a gentle effort. You try to spin it with great force and it will just fly off (don’t worry they don’t break :wink:)”

Circus skills peacock feather

Peacock Feathers – Strange sounding I know but the best way to teach balancing.

“The pupils will be completely focused on this challenge. Circus skills are a great way for pupils to work at their own level, adding to and creating new challenges.Once they can balance it on their hands, they can balance on their nose. Done that then lie down and stand up again keeping it balanced”

Circus Skills diabolo

Diabolo- a favourite for older end of primary and secondary. Spin, throw, catch and all sorts of flashy tricks.

“Pupils soon can become better than the teacher, taking over the learning process. Pupils focus in a way you may never have seen before. I have lost count of the amount of teacher amazed by the focus of a particular child. A point of reference for success.”

Add in some Poi, Chinese Ribbon. Stilt walking and you really do have the best day in schools.

I hope you can see the value of a Splats Circus Skills day. We have developed this over the last 20 plus years and you can be assured our expertise in circus skills teaching will leave you and your pupils with a day to remember

Stephen Richards – Director of Splats (BEd Hons PE)

For your peace of mind: We have nationwide availability, full public liability insurance and risk assessments for each activity which we send on booking. Teachers are CRB checked. We have worked with 1000s of schools across the UK – please ask for recommendations.