- Fun drama classes
- Covers reading and listening, literacy and more
- Give pupils increased confidence and self-esteem
- See improvements in school productions
- Improves teamwork and class bonding
Drama is an integral part of our society
Drama is at the heart of nearly everything that we do at Mainstream, because it is about creating stories, turning them into physical experiences and communicating them to others in an immediate and accessible way.
Although the performing arts have been an integral part of every culture throughout the history of human civilisation, the availability of dramatic presentations in the modern world in various media such as theatre, radio, television, video and DVD and now the Internet means that most of us see more drama in a week than most of our ancestors saw in a lifetime.
It is therefore more important than ever that children learn to understand, make their own critical judgements about and create their own examples of this important and influential artform.
Mainstream's unique syllabus
Stuart Harris
Deputy Headteacher, Park Road Primary School, Timperley
Our general drama syllabus takes a developmental approach, covering the same subjects at every level but with different targets at different age groups. If we have the same group for more than one term in an academic year, we move onto teaching various specific topics and skills in drama and even onto elements of theatre production.
Mainstream's drama classes are based around teaching key skills in:
- understanding and utilising story structures and storytelling techniques
- creating dramatic scenes based on existing stories and texts
- creating original dramatic stories and scenes
- improvisation and imagination
- skills, techniques and conventions of performance
- vocabulary of drama and theatre
- working as a group, and valuing and building on ideas from every member of that group
On top this essential foundation we will introduce other skills and performance techniques, which may include mime, script work, vocal skills, puppetry, technical theatre, film or video and many others.
The skills learned by pupils in drama can also be applied in other lessons as a different learning method, especially role-play, which can be used to enhance understanding in subjects such as English, history, PSHE and geography. Whilst we would not wish to give some pupils a reduced experience of learning drama skills, we can sometimes include such topics as themes or subjects within our drama classes. We can also help by advising or training teachers in the use of these techniques in regular classes, or devise a separate programme of work based around a topic that you wish to cover using drama techniques.
Drama's many benefits
Participation in drama has also been shown to be beneficial to pupils in a less direct way. For instance, a recent study into a programme of drama work in primary schools by the National Theatre found that pupils came away with the following benefits:
- an increased enjoyment of school
- increased self-confidence and self-esteem
- a recognition, through experience, of the value of working with other people towards goals
- higher scores in optional SATs mathematics
- learned to speak more clearly and listen more attentively