Are your children making progress during PPA time? Is your current PPA provision making your life easier and saving you time?

If yes, fantastic. Using the right provider to cover your PPA can have a huge impact on your children’s learning, school’s priorities and of course, your time. Good PPA providers will use this time to support learning whilst giving children new experiences and an enjoyable change to their usual routine.  There are many PPA cover options out there, some internal and some external. If you are planning on working with an external provider, there are 6 key things to consider:

1) Learning: Look for the best of both worlds; this time can be used for enjoyable activities that also progress classroom learning. Children can be given a magical learning experience that breaks from what they’re used to, and this time can also be tailored to school priorities & classroom topics.

2) Cover: Does your external PPA provider supply cover?  Your PPA provider should be making life easy for you, providing cover so you are never left in the lurch in the case of sickness or absence.

3) Planning: Do you want to know exactly what is covered in your PPA sessions at a glance? It’s not unreasonable to expect lesson plans, learning objectives and feedback on how classes are doing so you can be confident that your children are receiving quality provision.

4) Quality: Have you been told about the rigorous recruitment processes, ongoing training and development and continued mentor support that your PPA provider gives to their staff?  You should expect the same high standards that you would apply to staff within your school.

5) Partnership: You should be in a two way partnership with your external PPA provider. Ideally you will work with the same member of staff throughout the year, giving them time to get to know your children, staff and culture to ensure they are completely integrated within your school.

6) Engagement: PPA time is a great opportunity to give your children a different type of learning experience to that of a typical classroom; spark their imaginations, let them explore new ideas and scenarios, all whilst supporting them to grow in confidence and enjoy themselves.

If your current PPA provision isn’t ticking all the boxes and you’d like to include more creative performing arts work in your school, you may wish to consider working with Artis next academic year.

Our creative sessions fuse music, drama and dance with your classroom topics, physicalising children’s learning and giving them an inspiring experience. Children who work with Artis in their PPA time may be dancing solids, liquids & gases one week and singing songs about punctuation the next…

We boost achievement for all learners, regardless of whether English is their first language, whether they have special educational needs, behaviour difficulties or are shy. Children have spoken for the first time, wanted to come to school for the first time, or simply loved learning for the first time.

Artis sessions are the best in-class field trips children will ever have.