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So you've joined the Adelaide Fringe Schools Program. This guide is designed to help you understand how the program works and how you can best engage with schools and young audiences during the festival. It's a fantastic way to introduce your art to the next generation of Fringe-goers and expand your show's reach.

Contents

About the Schools Program

The Adelaide Fringe Schools Program is all about bringing artists and young audiences together. We promote shows that are suitable for teachers and students, helping to develop future audiences and provide young people with fantastic access to the arts. All events participating in the Schools Program will be featured in the Kids & Schools Guide. This guide gets distributed widely to South Australian schools, early learning centres (ELCs), libraries, and child-friendly businesses, and it's also available online.

For information about eligibility, how Adelaide Fringe supports you and opting-in to the Schools Program, check out our Schools Program Resource.

Promoting Your Show to Schools

As an open-access festival, we can't promote one event over another. But that doesn't mean you can't! We highly encourage you, the artist, to actively market your show to schools. Here's how you can get started:

Reach Out to Appropriate Schools and Groups

A great place to begin is by identifying schools that would be a good fit for your show. The South Australian Department of Education's database of schools is an excellent resource for this. It's a searchable list that can help you find primary or secondary schools to target the right age group for your event. Just remember to ensure your show aligns with the school's values or faith before you reach out.

When contacting schools, it's often best to look for a dedicated Arts Coordinator (they're usually listed on the school's website). Otherwise, you can address your email to the Curriculum Coordinator or the specific subject teacher that aligns with your event, like Drama, Music, Art, or Language teachers. For primary schools and childcare centres, reaching out to the Principal or Director, respectively, is usually the best approach.

You might also consider approaching schools close to your venue or chatting with any teachers you know about promoting your event to their school. Don't forget to think about youth and community groups too; they might be happy to include information about your show in their newsletters or on their bulletin boards.

Aligning with the Australian Curriculum

To make your show even more appealing to schools, it's a good idea to see how it aligns with subjects taught in the Australian curriculum. When you contact schools, highlighting any curriculum points your show covers can be a real benefit.

Here are some helpful links:

Creating Marketing Materials for Schools

Once you've found a suitable school or group, putting together an information kit or online flyer is a great way to provide them with all the necessary details. This kit could include:

  • The correct Adelaide Fringe Logo.
  • A clear statement that you are registered with the Adelaide Fringe Schools Program.
  • Your show's session times and School Ticket Prices.
  • Venue information.
  • Age suitability and rating guidelines.
  • A list of Australian curriculum points your event covers.
  • A description of the event and a high-quality photo (please make sure the photo is clear and well-composed.
  • Any awards your show has received and quotes from previous reviews or audience feedback.
  • Details of any previous arts-in-education experience you have.
  • Company or artist biographies.
  • Teacher resources, such as teacher notes or activities.
  • Information on the possibility for a Q&A post-show (be sure to confirm this with your venue first!).
  • Details on the possibility for incursions at their school, such as a performance or workshop.

Schools Program Bookings

For any Schools Program bookings, schools should email schools@adelaidefringe.com.au or call 08 8100 2004. If you are sending a school an email with an information kit or flyer, we encourage you to send it in an easy-to-download format like a PDF or Word Document.

Content and Ratings

It's super important that you accurately detail the age suitability of your event. The classification you nominated during registration will appear in your event listing in the Kids & Schools Guide. The rating of your event is incredibly important to schools, so please take the time to let them know of any further information or content warnings. An accurate rating helps schools and organisations make appropriate booking decisions.

Just a heads-up: any complaints or concerns from teachers about events they consider inappropriate will be referred directly to you, the presenter.

By actively reaching out and marketing your event, you're setting yourself up for greater success within the Schools Program!

Summary

  • The Adelaide Fringe Schools Program connects your show with young audiences and offers benefits like reduced AIC and waived transaction fees.
  • To participate, ensure you have a school ticket price lower than your cheapest public ticket, an age rating lower than (M), and provide complimentary teacher tickets.
  • Actively market your show to schools using the SA Department of Education database and by aligning your content with the Australian curriculum.
  • Prepare an informative marketing kit for schools, including all key details about your show and its suitability.
  • All school bookings go through the Fringe Schools Program Coordinator via schools@adelaidefringe.com.au or 08 8100 2004.

Additional Resources