NT Collections: Inspiring young audiences

Every young person in the country should have access to the National Theatre, either directly or digitally, before they leave school. That's the aim of Jane Ball, the National's education manager, mastermind behind the NT's Collection for Schools which makes a wide range of plays and resources freely available to secondary and primary schools.

The roll-out to primary schools has only been going a couple of years, and already some 1700 schools have signed up to it. Ball is keen to reach out to primary schools in areas where there isn't any theatre, and places of deprivation. She says, ‘while this isn't a replacement for live theatre, we hope it will complement anything else a school can provide in the way of drama. Schools are under enormous pressure, and I can see why drama is often at the bottom of the list of priorities.’