Polka Theatre will hand out 10,000 free tickets to London and Surrey schools in 2026/27 and widen three creative learning programmes, after receiving nearly 17,000 ticket requests last year.
Polka Theatre in Wimbledon will give 10,000 free tickets to schoolchildren across London and Surrey during the 2026/27 academic year, up from 9,000, and expand three of its creative learning programmes. The theatre received 16,749 requests for free tickets in 2025/26, and the increase is funded by The Garek Trust and other supporters.
It is a telling number for a building that opened in 1979 as the first UK venue dedicated entirely to children, and which now reaches more schools than seats. More than 100 state primary and special schools will take part in Curtain Up!, the scheme that covers the ticket cost. One teacher at a partner school told the theatre that most of their children had never seen a live show before visiting Polka.
Talking Tales, which finished a two-year pilot with six schools, goes out to ten more. The programme trains teachers to use drama and storytelling in the classroom to build children’s oracy and presentation skills, with a Polka practitioner first modelling sessions and then mentoring. The timing is deliberate: oracy joins the National Curriculum in 2028, and National Literacy Trust research puts 31% of children starting primary school below the expected communication level for their age, rising to 47% among children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Write Here Write Now, the creative writing programme in which children develop stories over two terms and then watch professional actors perform them on Polka’s stage, adds nine new schools for 2026, the National Year of Reading. Teachers last year reported that 90% of pupils became more creative with their ideas and 86% improved their vocabulary and creative writing.
Creative Connections, which works with whole school communities rather than single classes, grows from six schools to eight after a pilot year that scored an average 9.5 out of 10 from participating schools.
Polka will also tour a production into London schools free of charge for three weeks, reaching roughly 2,000 children. Rebel, Rebel, written by Nessah Muthy, plays a studio run at Polka in the new year before touring, and marks the Polka directorial debut of artistic director Helen Matravers. It follows a mixed-race, working-class girl in 2027 whose activism, shaped by the Suffragette movement, makes her a target for bullying. It is the third year running that Polka has taken a show directly into schools.
Polly Simmonds, Polka’s director of creative learning, said: “Building on the evidence and learning gathered through our programmes, we are delighted to be extending the reach of our schools programme in 2026/27. We want to strengthen our partnerships with schools and continue to demonstrate the transformative role that theatre and the arts can play in children’s education, creativity and confidence.”
Lynette Shanbury, executive director and joint chief executive, put the case more bluntly: “With plummeting A level and GCSE entries for drama and arts, we have to pay attention to the start of children’s time at school. It is vital to embed the arts with children and the teachers who inspire them from the very beginning of their learning lives — it is where theatre begins.”
Polka’s venue drew more than 125,000 visitors last year, with another 45,000 reached through touring, in-school projects and community work. It runs two performance spaces, the 300-seat Y C Chan Theatre and the 90-seat Adventure Theatre, and is open six days a week for fifty weeks of the year.
