Each of our teaching artists can do up to three workshops per day. If you would like to book more than three workshops, we would need to look at either an additional teaching artist or an additional day

It’s ideal for us to be able to work in a theatre or other large, open room (but not a traditional gym, in which acoustics can be a problem). However, we recognize that such spaces are rarely available in schools. We are happy to work in the classroom; however, we ask that you move all of the desks and chairs to the sides of the room, creating as much open space in the middle as possible. If you’re able to do this before we arrive, that will leave more time for our activities. It is also useful for the Teaching Artist to know roughly how much space there will be for the number of students. Limited space may affect the types of activities we will be able to do. Ideally, the classroom is 10×10 MINIMUM

We adjust our activities to fit your class periods. Our standard fee covers a workshop of up to 90 minutes. We can create a program that lasts longer, but it will attract different fees. Please inquire.

The workshops work best with a group of students who are familiar with each other, so a regular class grouping is ideal. As with most learning activities, we’ll be able to do different activities with smaller groups than we would with larger groups, but we are able to accommodate up to 30 students. If you are creating a group of students just for the occasion of the workshop, the ideal group size is about 16 – 24 students..

No. Because some students may be a bit self-conscious doing acting exercises, it’s important that all of the students in the room are participating..

We can arrange a speaker for a larger group or create a Master-Class environment. Please inquire.

Some workshops require photocopies (no more than a few pages) for each student. If this is the case, the Teaching Artist will discuss this with you ahead of time and provide the documents via e-mail. It is generally expected that the Teaching Artist will have access to a music machine. If this is not available, please inform us as part of your booking

We ask that our host teacher remain in the room for the entire workshop. You are welcome to participate along with the students, if you are comfortable with that. If not, we ask that you actively observe the workshop. Please do not grade papers, check e-mail, chat with colleagues or do any other work; it sends the message that what we’re doing isn’t very important or interesting and makes it much harder for us to succeed. Although our workshops may seem a bit disorderly (acting exercises often encourage free expression) we very rarely have discipline problems. Students almost always respond with both respect and enthusiasm. If a Teaching Artist does encounter classroom management challenges, we would like to be able to request your help and support but we do not encourage teacher discipline if not requested.

Please do not schedule a workshop on a day when you know you will have a Relief Teacher minding the class. It’s really important for the students to have a familiar teacher in the room. If something unexpected happens and there will be a Relief Teacher on the day of the workshop, please make sure the teaching artist is informed ahead of time, and please arrange to have an administrator or other staff member available to introduce the Teaching Artist. If that person cannot stay for the duration of the workshop, it would at least be helpful if they could check in a few times during the workshop. And of course, we request that the Relief Teacher remain in the room for the duration of the workshop, either participating or observing actively

All of CPA’s Teaching Artists share a common goal: to give students the opportunity to explore creative skills. However, we all use slightly different activities and approaches. Different workshop themes also lend themselves to different techniques, and the final variable is the students themselves. Once the Teaching Artist is confirmed for your workshop she or he will contact you to discuss your particular goals and specific strategies to meet them. While we plan carefully the types of activities we will do in a workshop, we sometimes find we have to adapt them in the moment to suit the specific needs of any given group of students.

The Teaching Artists don’t come to CPA’s administrative office on a regular basis, so they aren’t able to deliver payment, which must be processed in our business office. Our preferred method of payment is by direct transfer or credit card. Just phone our administrative office during regular business hours to organise payment methods.

CPA rates are purposefully as low as possible while remaining respectful to the skills levels of our Teaching Staff. Unfortunately we are unable to offer discounts on our already low rates and we find it embarrassing to refuse such requests. If your school cannot afford our workshops, we encourage you to seek support from a local business via a sponsorship. CPA will supply you with a letter of support to justify the need for students to experience arts-based learning however we are unable to write the full application for you. Please inquire.

CPA is more than willing to travel to all locations. Travel, food and accommodation will affect the fees we will charge. Please inquire.