Drama

‘All the world’s a stage…”

Drama skills are life skills. Drama is about expressing feelings, contributing ideas, articulating opinions, developing social skills and exploring the imagination.

Drama is one of the first art forms with which children experiment. From the earliest age they act out imagined situations and put themselves, sometimes literally, in other people’s shoes.

In drama lessons, children draw on their observations and experience of the real world in order to create a make-believe world. By creating, developing and reflecting on this make-believe world, they can come to understand more about themselves and the real world in which they live. They can think about how people behave in particular circumstances by exploring a variety of social situations. By acting out emotions, they can explore a range of human feelings. Drama can help children to experiment with choices and moral dilemmas, giving them confidence as decision-makers and problem-solvers in the real world.

Drama lessons at Wellesley are also, of course, about enjoyment and fun! By taking part in drama games and activities, children gain enormous self-confidence as well as developing the ability to cooperate and work together in a group.

Drama plays an important role in the development of spoken language, as it allows children to use language in a wider range of social situations than would normally arise in the classroom.

Drama is often an integral part of many other curricular areas. Theatre trips and drama workshops with visiting theatre companies enrich studies in other subjects such as English and History.

Of course Drama is also about performance. Every pupil at Wellesley takes part in a production each year and these experiences act as vehicles for the development of skills such as the ability to address an audience and to improvise under pressure. It is in these performances that a real sense of theatre, team spirit and professionalism can be nurtured. I believe the almost tangible excitement of being part of a show helps children to truly believe in themselves whilst having the opportunity to be part of something magical and very special.