Supporting the Development of Circus in Children's Education
The goal of this residency is to for Galway Community Circus (GCC) and the University of Galway to collaborate on embedding Youth and Social Circus in the curriculum of three degree courses across disciplines in order to educate a new generation of teachers on the benefits of circus in children’s education.
Working together, Galway Community Circus and the University of Galway will:
- Collaborate on innovative teaching, new research and novel curriculum creation in early childhood education
- Support the development of circus arts programmes for young children
- Promote the use of circus pedagogy in Irish children’s education
The degree courses we will work within are:
- Early Childhood Education and Professional Practice
- Children Studies
- Drama and Theatre Studies
University of Galway is a leading university in the areas of childhood, youth and family and theatre studies offering degrees in Early Childhood Education and Professional Practice - an innovative accessible offering for adult learners; the only degree in Children Studies in Ireland and a world class degree in Drama and Theatre Studies. These areas are supported through state-of-the-art facilities and cross-unit collaborations at the O’Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance and the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and the School of Education. The engagement is planned in terms of teaching, artistic development and promotion of Youth and Social Circus.
University of Galway has already partnered with GCC on Erasmus+ funded project Circus ++ (2019-2022) to develop a European BA degree in Youth and Social Circus Pedagogy and is conducting the monitoring and evaluation of the Creative Europe funded Wires Crossed: Head, Heart Balance (2022-23) project on funambulism and wellbeing.
Youth and Social Circus is becoming increasingly established in the education of children across Europe. This residency offers GCC, as Ireland’s premiere company in this area, the opportunity to lead in teaching students of the BA in ECEPP, Children Studies and Theatre Studies about the benefits of using circus skills to educate children by contributing classes and workshops across a range of different modules. Many of these students will become future teachers in pre-school, primary and secondary level education, ensuring this residency a lasting legacy.
2025-2026 Third Year Residency Actions
In 2025, we were delighted to receive Arts Council of Ireland funding for a third consecutive year to continue our partnership with the University of Galway. The residency focuses on embedding circus into primary school curricula while expanding circus pedagogy at third-level institutions across Ireland.
Our circus educators delivered five workshops and one lecture to students in the MA in Children’s Studies and MA in Drama and Theatre Studies, covering topics such as:
- Circus for early years
- Social circus and working with diverse communities
- Applied performance in educational, social, and community contexts
- Bamboo workshops focused on inclusive circus pedagogy
The residency will continue into 2026, with upcoming talks and lectures exploring the use of circus in primary and early years education settings.
As part of our second year of the YPCE Residency with the University of Galway, we again delivered a module called 'Fail Better: Taking Risks and Developing Resilience through Circus' for the Designing Futures programme. This module equipped students with essential life skills, including resilience, risk-taking, and the ability to embrace failure as part of personal and professional growth. Through weekly workshops, students practiced juggling, tightwire, and acrobatics while attending interdisciplinary lectures on resilience and risk. This innovative approach highlights the power of circus to inspire confidence and adaptability.
We also continued to deliver workshops as part of the Applied Theatre, Children and Creativity, Promoting Inclusion in Early Years Care and Education and Understanding Children’s Early Learning modules.
This year, circus trainer Pete Duncan also contributed as a guest lecturer for the Theatre for Children and Young People module at the University of Galway, working with a dynamic group of Early Years Childcare and Drama students. His lectures focused on the concept of "Play," drawing on the work of Jonathan Kay to examine its evolution from childhood activity to a tool for creating theatre and exploring life themes such as communication, conflict, love, and identity.
Pete also incorporated ideas from Lozanov on learning and engagement, using circus warm-up games as a hands-on method to explore these concepts. Students engaged in activities, reflected on their experiences, and received recommendations for further learning through TED Talks, books, and videos showcasing circus and early years play projects.
Galway Community Circus delivered workshops as part of the Applied Theatre, Children and Creativity, Promoting Inclusion in Early Years Care and Education and Understanding Children’s Early Learning modules. We also hosted the first ever conference on circus and education at the university in November 2022 with speakers and contributors across academia and the circus education sector.
Designing Futures
Galway Community Circus co-delivered our very first full 12-week module at the University of Galway for the Designing Futures programme, an initiative developed to help students succeed in life and the future world of work.
The module was called ‘Fail Better: Taking Risks and Developing Resilience through Circus’ and offered students the opportunity to build personal resilience, investigate the benefits of risk-taking and the importance of failure in a learning process by practicing circus skills. In weekly workshops students are introduced to juggling, tightwire and acrobatics while also attending lectures on risk, resilience and failure from a range of different disciplinary perspectives.
Read more about the module here.
Arts in Action
We were delighted to be a part of the Arts in Action programme in November at the University of Galway. At the event, we discussed the details of our exciting partnership as company-in-residence at the University, funded by the Arts Council’s YPCE Residency Scheme, introduced the individual circus artists involved in the residency, and heard about some of the exciting research projects taking place from Dr. Ian Walsh.
Circus artists and Galway Community Circus tutors Lisa, Davi and Isabela gave insights into their careers and showed off their circus skills for those in attendance.
