Drama

 

Our curriculum offers lots of opportunities for children to develop their many talents.

 

At St Joseph’s Park Hill we excel in Performing Arts. 

Children have the opportunity to perform in Assemblies and whole school productions.  All pupils from Reception  to Year 6 receive a discreet, specialist - led drama lesson each week delivered by Mrs Doney.  We hold performances several times a year and our end-of-year productions, which include all the children in KS2, are wonderful celebrations of the children's talents in singing and performing.  These shows are keenly anticipated by pupils, parents and staff.

 

Many of our children enjoy Drama extra-curricular club, run by Miss Ellie Cook from Basics Junior Theatre.  Song, dance and performing skills are taught, with the main focus on developing confidence and self-esteem.

 

Dance

 

All our pupils benefit from expert dance teaching by Miss Yasmin Roberts of Sanderson's School of Dance and through our dance curriculum, we aim to foster creativity, physicality, imagination and a real enjoyment of the freedom that moving to music brings.

 

From Pre-school through to Year 6, the children progressively build their skills in a weekly, timetabled lesson.  In EYFS dance contributes to the development of early movement skills and the children start to learn and understand basic dance movements, dance patterns, how to link movements together and how to create their own moves.  Dance develops confidence and control, and very importantly the children have fun and exercise.

 

In KS1, we build the children's fundamental movement skills.  They learn to perform a number of travelling skills with accuracy, confidence, control and speed, and how to execute these solo, with a partner or within a team.

 

In KS2 the children develop both their technique and understanding of different dance styles.  They learn to evaluate and improve performance.

 

They build their ability to remember longer and more complicated routines, formations and transitions.  There are cross-curricular benefits, as the children develop an understanding of music in relation to dance; they grow from using simple beats in musical timing to make complex beats and rhythm.

 

Our pupils love to dance and perform.  They have the opportunity to perform to audiences in school and also participate in competitions with other schools.

 

The benefits of regular, specialist dance lessons are numerous and as well as improved fitness, posture, flexibility and rhythm, dance improves confidence, perseverance and contributes to both cognitive and emotional development.