Performance and public speaking require a level of self-confidence that historically our children have not commonly displayed. Their opportunities to engage in this type of play and to see these skills is, for the majority of our children, not part of their common experience. Children’s experience watching performance is often limited to TV and Cinema. The link between an actor inhabiting a character and the skills needed to do this are alien to them as they only see the performance in 2D and for all intents and purposes it is ‘real’ people being themselves. Previously there has been a Christmas show for a few year groups and an end of term play and leavers assembly for year six. Children have derived huge amounts of enjoyment from the process but have had to make steep learning curves in skills and confidence. Our children love to sing and this is an integral part of our curriculum and so the quality of the singing has always been markedly different to that of the acting and performance.

This general lack of confidence has also been historically demonstrated by children when working in class, sharing ideas etc, but through the introduction of Crew in 20-21, children throughout school have showed a marked improvement in their confidence and basic public speaking skills. We feel that drama is a natural next step to help children cement a skilful grasp of speaking out loud. We will engage with the local Public speaking competitions for the upper Key stage 2 children to give them chance to test their skills and also to see the work of their peers in other settings. Alongside PSHE and Crew we feel this work will arm children with the skills to confidently articulate their place in the world. Learning about body language, voice control, annunciation, articulation and tone. All of these skills will allow them to use their person masterfully in communicating their ideas to the world.