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Junior Drama

Rational

Drama lessons in the Junior School support the requirements for Drama at Key Stage 2 as set out in the English National Curriculum. Drama is also used as a process to help pupils develop their understanding within other subject areas or as a means of exploring issues within Positive Living. Using drama in this way helps pupils to develop a greater understanding of the world and their place within it.

Teaching Drama as a subject to children in the Junior School allows them to build upon the skills they have acquired in Calvi and helps them strive to become more confident performers. Teaching strategies and techniques become more in-depth, in order to help pupils improve their understanding of how to develop in this subject.

Subject Aims and Objectives

Drama in the Junior School encourages pupils to develop self-confidence, improve their acting technique and use drama to explore and further their understanding within other areas of the curriculum. In order for pupils to thrive within this subject, the following aims and objectives have been set:

• To provide a stimulating environment in which pupils’ creativity, originality and expressiveness is able to flourish
• To provide pupils with the opportunity to create, perform and respond to their work in Drama
• To introduce children to a variety of stimulus as a starting point for drama, for example, book extracts, poems, songs, photographs, articles, artefacts, scripts
• To introduce pupils to a variety of explorative strategies, for example, hot seating, role play, still image, narration, improvisation, thought tracking, marking the moment
• To introduce pupils to the drama medium, for example, sound, music, space, levels, props, movement, mime, gesture, voice, language
• To introduce pupils to different elements of drama, for example, action, plot, content, pace, characterisation
• To ensure drama lessons inspire confidence and enthusiasm within the pupils and allows for the inclusion and progression of each individual
• To model creative behaviour and use techniques, such as teacher in role, to help extend pupils’ abilities and develop their drama

Teaching and Learning

In the Junior Department, pupils tend to separate themselves from projected play and begin to use drama as a tool to explore issues and to enhance their understanding of English or other areas of the curriculum. Pupils are also promoted to further their own skills and understanding of this subject.

Teaching of Drama in the Junior School should involve use of games, development of movement and vocal skills, exploration of strategies and implementation of cross-curricular themes to support classroom learning. Drama lessons in Year 3 and 4 are planned according to the following three headings:

• Writing and Performance of Drama
• Improvisation and Role Play
• Responding to Drama

The study of Drama in the Junior School aims to provide children with the skills and techniques that will allow them to participate with confidence in a wide range of activities. Pupils should be given the opportunity to:

• To create, adapt and sustain different roles, individually and in groups
• To use character, action and narrative to convey story, themes, emotions and ideas
• To use dramatic techniques to explore characters and issues
• To evaluate how they and others have contributed to the overall effectiveness of performances

Senior Drama