How opera is being repackaged to appeal to young schoolchildren

You could be forgiven for associating the Royal Opera House (ROH) more with the over-50s than with the under-15s. But if you did, then you might be surprised to learn that the ROH's education department reaches out every year to 93,000 people of all ages and backgrounds to engage new generations with opera and ballet.

It is safe to assume that opera and ballet can be unfamiliar mediums to even the most refined of schoolchildren, and the first reaction encountered by the ROH in the classroom is often bemusement. "Children respond positively as long as you introduce them to opera and ballet in the right way," explains Paul Reeve, the ROH's director of education. "The older students can have quite an extreme negative reaction when you first tell them that you're going to be talking about opera, but that resistance is a great challenge. It's great to take those sceptical kids on a journey away from what they've decided opera and ballet are and why they don't like them. We give them the opportunity to experience what it's like to be, say, a composer or a choreographer, and that shows them the skill that is involved in the artforms. It enables them to make an informed decision on whether they like opera and ballet."

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It is uninformed, negative opinions of opera and ballet that prove the largest obstacle in the way of the ROH reaching out to a wider audience, so their education programmes are invaluable to both the schools and the future of the institution. "Education programmes are a great way to engage in dialogue between our artists and the community," says Reeve. "We can find out what people think of our artforms and what they find interesting or difficult about them, then feed that back into the work. Of course we are generating future audiences, but we're also generating present audiences. Having a more diverse audience coming through the doors of the Royal Opera House is intrinsically valuable, as well as valuable for the future."

Among the current initiatives being rolled out to schools is New Dance Makers, a collaboration between the ROH, The Royal Ballet and East London Dance, to mentor GCSE dance students from Newham in East London, culminating in a day of dance activities where the young dancers can develop choreographic ideas with dancers from the Royal Ballet. The idea is for the ROH to build a strong cultural presence in the area in anticipation of the 2012 Olympics. "As a big public organisation we have a responsibility to the cultural education of children and that means our work in schools is crucial," says Reeve.

One of the more established programmes is Write An Opera, a scheme that holds a summer school at the ROH in Covent Garden for teachers who want to help their students create an original opera. It is based on a similar scheme that proved highly successful for the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the Eighties. "We try to find a balance between working with teachers and working directly with children," says Reeve. "Working with teachers has a multiplying effect: if you work with 30 teachers, you can reach up to 900 children. Working with teachers also has a better chance of building a sustainable legacy."

Twenty-eight schools in Cornwall, Kent, London and elsewhere in the UK are now in the throes of putting together their own operas, with the occasional participation of ROH artists, and schoolchildren from Cornwall will have the chance to perform the finished article at the ROH in London in July.

Schools have found that while these programmes obviously give their pupils pleasure and a greater awareness of the arts, they have a broader effect, too. "I don't think arts participation has a monopoly on developing people's creativity, their communication and collaboration skills, their confidence and self-esteem," says Reeve. "But it does those things particularly well. The feedback we get is that participation in an opera or ballet project can have a hugely positive effect on children who have previously struggled elsewhere in their school life."

The programmes can also have a more direct effect on the futures of their young participants. Chance to Dance, a scheme to nurture young ballet talent among children in London who may not otherwise have the opportunity to take up dance, recently produced its first Royal Ballet School graduate, who has since joined the English National Ballet.

"I didn't realise when I was young that the arts could be a career," says Reeve. "We want to inspire children and raise their aspirations. We're not only encouraging prospective artists, but administrators, technicians, stage managers and so on. It's not just about finding the next Darcey Bussell or Bryn Terfel, but we could sow seeds that will bear fruit further down the line."