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Drama Curriculum "all the world is a stage and the men and women merely players" William Shakespeare

The purpose of the drama curriculum...

Whilst drama is not identified within the National Curriculum as a separate subject the importance of this subject lies within many strands of the English Curriculum

"To ensure that all children participate in and gain knowledge, skills and understanding associated with the artistic practice of drama. Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre performances". Mary Myatt

Intent

Drama at Wentworth C of E is a subject concerned with the development of transferable skills that are relevant to all, in terms of personal and social awareness and future employability, whatever the ultimate career choice.

Like the other arts, drama involves imagination and feelings and helps us to make sense of the world. Drama is a creative and cultural activity. The language of theatre is international, understood by everyone. It provides an opportunity for pupils to explore the world of people from other places, times and cultures, and to examine differences and similarities with their own environment. Drama has its own history and body of work, much of which has a unique and important place in our cultural life.

We provide opportunities for our learners to create their own work, use drama techniques to explore themes, issues and ideas, interpret the meaning of story and poetry. Practically they develop their physical and vocal skills in performing to an audience and explore how meaning is communicated to an audience. Students develop both a theoretical, as well as practical knowledge of drama. They respond to a wide and diverse variety of stimuli, exploring a range of social, cultural and historic contexts. They also learn how to evaluate and discuss their own work and the drama produced by others including the work of professional theatre makers.

Implementation

Opportunities for developing drama skills are threaded across our curriculum, where children have opportunity to explore text types through our guided reading sessions, enhance their craft of writing through role play and develop an understanding of lives in the past within our history project pathways.

Drama is explored through our Tribe Time curriculum, as creative citizens driven by a range of poetry. Our drama after school clubs provides opportunity for our children to work alongside subject specialist. Christian celebrations within church are an opportunity for children to perform to an audience and gain confidence in public performance. This opportunity is further enhanced by an end whole school performance, where children are involved in dance, drama, the creation of scene sets, costume and make up.

Impact

Our children demonstrate confidence whilst performing in front of others, be it class members, whole school or a wider audience. Through our Tribe Time Curriculum they demonstrate their ability to interpret their understanding of cultural differences led through the medium of poetry. Our project based learning provides opportunities to interpret lives of the past, developing and demonstrating their empathy and compassion. Through our RE curriculum and our schools alignment with the Christian faith, opportunity to retel Biblical stories is enacted out in church to our wider community, where our learners demonstrate confidence through articulately speaking in public showing an understanding of audience captivation and engagement. This is built on and truly recognised in our whole school end of year performance, where learners develop ownership of their characters and engage with the audience to portray their individuality, whilst working with fellow characters and developing a relationship whilst in role.