Frequently Asked Questions…

What do you teach?

  • Theatre of Science presents free, live Science shows online, aimed primarily at home-educating families.

    There are three different lesson types available each week during UK term time: All Ages Science, IGCSE Physics and the Lego-story show.

  • Theatre of Science is written and. presented by award-winning science communicator and teacher Lara Stafford. Her husband Jim helps out where he can, answering (some) messages and emails, running our Ko-fi donations and designing the Theatre of Science magazine.

  • All lessons are available to watch live during the week at preset times on both Youtube and Facebook. All past lessons are available to watch on Youtube, and archived here on our website.

    See the timetable on the home page of the website for the current lesson times and locations.

  • The best way to find out is to turn up to a live lesson and join in! Our all-ages science lessons and lego-story shows are both aimed at a wide range of ages and abilities, and the GCSE lessons, while targeted at kids around 15 years old, can be enjoyed and understood by much younger children.

  • That’s you! And us! If you watch the lessons and are part of the Theatre of Science community, then you’re in the Science Alliance!

  • We recently launched Theatre of Knowledge (www.theatreofknowledge.com) to provide a wider range of subjects to our audience. We currently have weekly English lessons from our friend Tempest, and will be adding History lessons in September 2026.

  • Unfortunately, writing and presenting three lessons a week, wrestling with social media platforms and writing an irregular science magazine don't leave Lara enough time to do much apart from drink coffee and occasionally sleep, so not at the moment!

How do we sign up?

  • Theatre of Science lessons can be accessed completely free of charge – simply turn up to a live on Facebook or Youtube, or watch a past lesson on our website. However, the only way we're able to offer these lessons is for those who can afford to support us, to sign up to send us a monthly donation on our Ko-fi page.

    Our supporters get sent a welcome pack with lots of fun goodies, and recieve our 'occasional' Science Magazine and Activity Packs through the post.

  • As you can imagine, Theatre of Science takes an immense amount of time to run, and supports a family of four. The monthly payments reflect the amount of time taken to provide high quality science education year round, as well as the archive of past lessons.

    Individual

  • Thanks for signing up! If you've not got your pack yet it's either 1: not been long enough, give it a week just in case of postal delays, 2: Jim asked you a question like 'where's your address' or 'have you had any magazines in the past?' so check your emails or the Ko-fi messages, 3: It's gone missing in the post.

    You are ALWAYS welcome to message Jim by email or on Ko-fi and ask what's going on. Posting on Facebook or messaging on Facebook/Instagram is less likely to get a reply, but I do try and check in as often as I can!

  • We can't currently send physical welcome packs to our supporters abroad, but we do welcome signups from anyone outside the UK if they're using our lessons to home-educate. We have a specific 'Photon' tier on Ko-fi for these supporters, and they can access digital copies of our magazine as a thank-you!

  • We try and vary the back issues we send out in the welcome packs, and when we get a reprint of a back-issue, we put that issue up for sale in our Ko-fi shop at cost price for our supporters (ie, you have to be signed up as a supporter to buy a copy). The only back issues available are those you can currently see in the shop. There's also a few digital back issues available for download – we try and vary these thematically by season.

  • If you're enjoying the lessons but can't afford to support us financially, that's absolutely fine – you're the reason we keep our lessons free and that the wider support of the Science Alliance community works so well.

    That said, you can support us in a big way by spreading the word about Theatre of Science – anywhere you can mention us to home educating families, be that online or in person, please do tell people about us. The only way we can continue is by bringing in a wider audience as older kids age out of our lessons, and you guys yelling our names is an enourmous part of that.

  • You don't have to do that – just let us know when you sign up (message Jim on Ko-fi or email theatreofscience@gmail.com using the email address you signed up with) how many kids you have and he'll put enough glasses in for all!

…just one more thing.

  • NO! We are very, very anti-AI for a wide variety of reasons, and you can be assured that no AI has been used in any element of Theatre of Science.

  • Probably! If you're a supporter and have been watching for a while, let us know who you are and what you're sending and we can figure out a way of getting that in front of Lara!

  • Quite possibly. The best ways to find out are A: Use the search on our Youtube page, B: Have a browse around the website, C: Ask in the Theatre of Science Facebook Group (there's loads of lovely Science Alliance members there who will be able to help), or D: At a push email Jim at theatreofscience@gmail.com and he'll do his best to find out!

  • Maybe! We get a lot of good ideas from you guys, and as a community, it makes sense to look at subjects that loads of us are interested in! Feel free to throw suggestions at us. You might not get a reply, but if we really like a suggestion or see the same subject come up again and again (looking at you here Marine Biology) then we'll probably cover it at some point!

  • No there's not, you just didn't understand it properly! ...j/k – things can and do go wrong all the time. If you spot a technical or (shock, horror) factual error in one of our videos, email Jim at theatreofscience@gmail.com and he'll look into it.

  • We are very, very gradually adding to the Theatre of Knowledge teaching staff, figuring it all out as we go. We're still not sure how it's all going to work, and we have a lot of people lined up for all the subjects as we get to them, but there's no harm in popping an email over with some sample lessons if you already teach online. We've got a lot of messages about this and won't be reviewing emails until we need to, so please don't be offended if we don't reply. We're just putting all our energy into one subject at a time, and we'll get to your message eventually!

  • Yes, good luck! Though we please ask that you don't align yourself with us via your naming, messaging or branding in any way that might confuse our audience.

  • Maybe! Eventually! But definitely not by email or private message. If you're struggling with something from a lesson, or interested in finding out more, the odds are loads more Science Alliance members are too! Post any questions you have in the Theatre of Science Facebook Group – it's possible that another member of the Science Alliance will be able to help you, or Lara might even be able to jump in and help. Doing it this way is a massive help to our social media profile and stops us having to answer the same question again and again!