Drama Statement of Intent
Why do we teach Drama at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School?
Dramatic activity and use of imagination is a natural part of most children’s lives, in the form of make believe play. Though structuring this play and exploring dramatic arts, children at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School are encouraged to develop a sense of their own identity by exploring meaningful situations that have parallels in the real world. Children attending Morecambe Bay Primary School often lack real life experiences outside of school, have not had the opportunity to be exposed to a wide ranging of vocabulary and therefore need imaginative play and drama opportunities to enrich their narrow life experiences.
Drama is used as a tool for children to engage actively with the curriculum, within a thematic, cross curricular approach to learning. At Morecambe Bay children who find reading and writing difficult tend to respond more positively to the imaginative and multisensory learning offered by drama. Drama at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School develops all Literacy skills, including speaking and listening, encouraging children to understand and express points of view and motivating children to write for a range of purposes. This in turn helps children to develop meaningful vocabulary, creativity, enquiry, empathy, self- confidence, cooperation, leadership and negotiation, thus encompassing our core school values.
Perhaps, more crucially drama activities are engaging, fun and motivating, therefore making learning both enjoyable and memorable. The community our school serves requires pupils to be able to explore, discuss and deal with difficult issues. Drama offers them an outlet to express their emotions, develop critical thinking and problem solving skills in a supportive environment, developing and guiding their own learning.
Drama Curriculum and Progression In Knowledge and Skills 2020-21
Movement
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| Early Years |
- Develop movement
- Work with a partner using movement
- Respond to a musical signal
- Understand a sequence of movement
- Respond to a range of rhymes and stories
- Adopt a role in role play
- Explore a role using movement
- Use gesture and movement
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| Year 1 |
- Learn about movement by working with a partner
- Develop an understanding of various heights through movement.
- Explore a range of movements, using music as a stimulus.
- Explore a fairy tale through movement.
- Respond to a range of stimuli
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| Year 2 |
- to develop rhythm and pace through movement.
- to use sign, symbol and metaphor.
- to participate in whole class movement.
- Add movement to a performance poem
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| Year 3 |
- to participate in and rehearse a movement activity in pairs or small groups
- to put together a sequence of movements incorporating various techniques
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| Year 4 |
- to devise and rehearse a group movement activity
- to choreograph own paired or group movement routine
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| Year 5 |
- to devise, rehearse and perform movement in response to a range of stimuli
- Evaluate their own and others work
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| Year 6 |
- to develop and refine working with pace, tempo, large and fine movements to create dramatic effects
- to encorporate movement into a dramatic piece
- to evaluate and justify their movement choices
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Improvisation
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| Early Years |
- to assist the teacher in setting up a role play area
- to choose appropriate costumes, hats and props for role play activities
- to act out stories/scenarios within their own experiences
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| Year 1 |
- Use hot seat the teacher in role in a range of contexts.
- To interact with the teacher in role
- Develop gesture by engaging in improvisation
- Use props and costumes to develop action
- to act out familiar stories
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| Year 2 |
- Use freeze frame in a range of activities
- Use tableau in a range of activities
- To ask appropriated questions of the character being hot seaated
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| Year 3 |
- Use tableau, freeze frame and Freeze, Action, Sound
- Engage in hotseating, as a character
- Explore characters through hot seating
- to use conscience alley – (as a conscience- person stood in the line)
- Develop decision making skills by using conscience alley
- to take part in improvisation activities, using familiar story characters
- to develop thinking skills through engaging with given stimuli
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| Year 4 |
- to adopt and maintain a role during hotseating
- to develop understanding and empathy with others through improvisation
- to use conscience alley as the decider (person walking down the middle)
- to improvise while staying in role, using familiar characters
- to take part in a whole class improvisation
- to improvise using a given stimulus
- to use improvisation to consider the responses of a character
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| Year 5 |
- to engage with another character whilst staying in role (through hotseating, conscience alley, freeze, action sound)
- to respond in character during improvisation
- to develop awareness of maintaining an improvised role
- To use different accents to experiment with lines
- To participate in short improvisation using gesture , movement and and/or facial expression
- To use an improvised piece as a basis for a performance
- to evaluate my own and others work
- Develop problem solving skills using dramatic techniques
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| Year 6 |
- to maintain a role during imprvisation
- to develop responses to a range of different characters
- Use a range of stimuli as a base for improvisation
- Use a range of stimuli to develop creative and critical thinking skills
- to develop an improvised piece of drama into a performance
- To critically evaluate my own and others work
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Mime
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| Early Years |
- To focus upon moving silently
- To be able to move around a space individually or in small groups
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| Year 1 |
- To mime an every day activity
- To mime a simple routine of everyday activities (eg waking up)
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| Year 2 |
- Develop mime and gesture appropriate to a character
- To mime a simple routine eg a bee collecting nectar, their journey to school, metamorphosis
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| Year 3 |
Learn to enhance a piece of mime with music or narration |
| Year 4 |
Base a mime around a poem or a story that they have chosen |
| Year 5 |
Develop a short piece of mime into a performance |
| Year 6 |
Devise, rehearse and perform a mimed piece |
Acting
|
| Early Years |
- Express their own feelings
- Develop imaginative thinking while in role
- Recognise a variety of emotions
- Knows and responds appropriately to the teacher in role
|
| Year 1 |
- Respond to teacher in role
- To share ideas with others
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| Year 2 |
- Respond in role using movement and speech
- Develop characterisation through use of voice, movement, gesture and facial expression
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| Year 3 |
- Develop characterisation and thinking skills with the help of teacher in role
- Learn how to use tableau and Freeze Action Sound to tell a story
- Develop our thinking skills by exploring characterisation (what makes a character that character- costume, voice, gesture, movement)
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| Year 4 |
- Learn how to adopt a role
- Explore characterisation using props and puppets
- Learn how to devise, write and perform scripts
- Use thought tracking to gain a deeper understanding of the characters involved
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| Year 5 |
- To use props and costumes to explore characterisation
- Learn to develop structure in script writing
- Learn to write in role
- Experience live theatre
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| Year 6 |
- Learn to adopt and sustain a role
- Experience recorded drama and live theatre
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