In the Spotlight: the BSKL Performing Arts Blog

After a lovely long Summer break, the Drama Department is back with lots of exciting, creative opportunities for your children to get involved in.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to introduce our new Drama teacher, Melfie Ngwenya. Ms Ngwenya comes to us from Regents Pattaya, where she worked teaching Drama. Having lived and worked in many countries around the world, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Chile and Thailand, Ms Ngwenya brings to us a uniquely diverse experience of performing arts. 

As you may know, Drama is a new curriculum subject for the Primary School this year. Ms Ngwenya has developed our brand new curriculum, integrating the Juilliard Creative Classroom resources, taking an inquiry based approach.

Primary School years are a critical stage in the learner’s academic, social and emotional development. Learners who take Drama at this stage perform better academically, develop a better understanding of self and demonstrate improved emotional and behavior regulation as they negotiate pre-teen years. This is in addition to further developing creativity, confidence, communication, collaborative and critical thinking skills. Drama changes lives.

We aim to develop enthusiastic, thoughtful and aspirational young artists who are brave, bold and sophisticated in their ideas, willing to think outside the box and take creative risks when designing and making Drama work.

Spotlight on Juilliard 

This year, Drama will be bringing the Juilliard Performing Arts Learner Ambitions to the forefront of our teaching:

Primary students are starting off the school year with units of work entitled Creative Me, involving:

• Designing
• Performing
• Devising
• Responding

In Year 3, the students are exploring expressiveness through movement. Students will be creating stories using physicality, taking inspiration from a variety of stimuli.

In Year 4, the students are studying Melodrama: using their body and voice to bring these old-fashioned stock characters to life in our modern context.

In Year 5, the students are exploring the concept of play through a close look at the genre, clowning. Students will discover their inner clown, developing their characterisation skills.

In Year 6, the students are exploring being theatre makers and realising their creative vision for The Krukemeyer play, Boy At The Edge Of Everything.