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DRAMA CURRICULUM

Drama at South Lee School places focus on learning and developing the key skills required in performance, whilst maintaining a creative and dynamic learning environment. Drama lessons combine fun and imaginative games, improvisation, and storytelling with key vocabulary and elements of Drama theory. These elements aim to develop a child’s confidence, communication and self-esteem, all of which are transferable skills across the rest of the curriculum and in everyday life.

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South Lee School aims to give every child the opportunity to participate in a yearly production, with various roles available to cater for individual skills and interests: 

 

  • Acting roles

  • Backstage Crew (Stagehand, Runner, Wardrobe Assistant, Props Assistant, Set Design)

  • Technical Crew (Lighting & Sound) 

 

Pre-Prep children participate in a show during the Michaelmas Term, and Prep children participate in a show/musical towards the end of the Easter Term. The School also offers the opportunity for children to participate in further production work through a variety of Drama and Theatre extra-curricular clubs. Recent projects include a Musical Theatre Showcase, with songs from well-known West End and Broadway productions, and a Christmas Pantomime.

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As children progress through Early Years and Pre-Prep, their lessons allow them to explore popular stories and the basic foundations of creating a piece of Drama. 

 

EYFS, Year 1 & Year 2

  • Basic story structure – Beginning, middle, and end

  • Characterisation – Facial expression and body language

  • Use of voice to show a character 

  • Movement and storytelling

  • Still image 

  • Stories include ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Funnybones’, ‘Supertato’ and ‘Room on the Broom’ 

 

Drama lessons at this stage also aim to include and extend the children’s understanding and application of the school’s ‘Golden Values’, and current classroom themes and topics. As the children progress into Year 3, we begin to focus on termly schemes of learning with specific application of skills in mind: 

 

Year 3

  • Storytelling (Linear and non-linear narratives, narration) 

  • The Wizard of Oz (Characterisation) 

  • ‘Cats’ (Movement, speaking verse) 

 

Drama lessons for Prep school children are focused on termly schemes of learning. Each scheme targets a specific element of Drama exploration, which is then developed as the children move up through each year group.

 

Year 4

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Characterisation, introduction to Physical Theatre, soundscape)

  • Improvisation (Building a narrative, focus)

  • Twisted Fairy Tales (Non-linear narratives, passing of time/flashback/flashforward)

 

Year 5

  • Matilda (Characterisation) 

  • Theseus and the Minotaur (Physical Theatre) 

  • Melodrama (Genre, stock characters, movement)

 

Year 6

  • Where the Wild Things Are (Physical Theatre, soundscape)

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scripted performance, introduction to Shakespeare) 

  • Mask and Mime (Mask work, movement) 

 

Year 7

  • The Superheroes of Drama (Drama framework/techniques for building performance) 

  • Darkwood Manor (Building a narrative, characterisation) 

  • Radio Drama (Mediums of Drama) 

 

Year 8

  • Theatre in Education/TIE (Issue based theatre) 

  • Commedia Dell’Arte (Characterisation)

  • Devising Project (Summary of skills)

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