DRAMA
Drama is designed to be a valued and integrated element of the curriculum at Yarrells from Nursery to Year 8. There are the obvious links with music, dance and the visual arts and the more fundamental links with core academic, social and emotional learning. Our Drama Festival in the summer term, featuring dramatic productions based on scripted plays with music and dance, dominate only one third of the year’s drama curriculum. The summer productions are what most of our parents see but the most quintessential aspect of our drama teaching takes place in regular weekly classes throughout the year, in various Christmas presentations, assemblies (in French or English) and the Poetry and Dance Festivals in the spring term.
Drama gives us somany wonderful opportunities to promote enthusiasm and communication. Every different kind of drama engenders the divine combination of proficiency and confidence in oral communication, thinking skills, language development and physical well-being. Sounds pretty fancy? Maybe, but it works.
Our pupils develop confidence and increasing competence in those essential skills of oral and social communication. Such communication needs to be significant, meaningful and of high intellectual quality to make the impact needed in our world. As the banal chit-chat of the likes of Facebook dwindles into insignificance, future leaders will, more than ever, need to communicate in depth and with genuine authority. Sounds very aspirational but we must aim high.
Drama classes start from age 5 up; before that “drama” is role play inside and outside, free form and a normal part of Early Years play activities. In Year 1, drama becomes increasingly structured. By Yr 2, our pupils are learning a huge range of academic, social and emotional skills through drama most especially in the realms of communication, empathy, self-knowledge and intellectual development. In small class groups with the creative guidance of drama leaders, Mrs Chappell, Miss Boothman, Mrs Dishington, Mrs Quinton and Mrs Blake, trust and understanding are built.
Come the spring and summer terms each year, the time comes to share learning development with the outside world. This year, there were many presentations for audiences in Swan, most often combining drama with music and dance. Our Poetry and Dance Festivals in March were a great success. Then, in the Summer Term, came the main annual productions.
This year, Early Years presented The Caterpillar Boogie. Pre-prep gave us a talent-packed romp through storyland with Red Riding Hood in Fairyland. Later in the summer, the Juniors delighted us all with The Pied Piper and the Seniors presented Cinderella, our first ever “traditional” pantomime production bursting with all the usual audience participation plus the unusual appearance of Dorset farm folk, gypsies and fairies.
