by Ross Gerritsen
Head of Performing Arts and Head of Secondary Music
The Performing Arts Faculty model is a strong one that offers numerous opportunities for cross-curricular collaborations both within our faculty and with other departments and we are excited about heading into a new academic year with big plans for Regents Pattaya.
I was delighted to take up the new Head of Performing Arts position at Regents International School Pattaya. The addition of the role, which sits on the Education Leadership Team (ELT) was a conscious step by the school to establish Performing Arts as an integral part of school life. This was substantiated by the bold move of taking Dance out of the PE curriculum and placing it in our faculty under the direction of a newly appointed dance specialist.
Music at Regents has a long and proud history and the allocation of curriculum lessons from Early Years to Key Stage 3 is enviable. All Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 students enjoy two 80-minute music lessons each week of the year which enables both the Secondary and Primary teams (4 staff in total) plenty of scope to embed and deliver a meaningful academic pathway with the Juilliard Curriculum at its core.
With two full-time staff in Drama, the school is not able to match the Music allocation in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, however the Head of Drama has been working strategically to integrate an authentic Juilliard Creative Classroom scheme throughout the primary programmes by supporting classrooms teachers in their understanding of the importance of authentic Drama.
As we look to the future, further developing the breadth of Drama in our Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 curriculum will be a key focus. The recent decision to support the teacher training of one of our graduate Gap Staff over the next two years (in Drama) through distance learning in her home country will go a long way to supporting the development of Drama while she learns on the job at Regents.
The introduction of Dance as a specialist subject within the Performing Arts Faculty has been instrumental in establishing the identity of our team.
Two Juilliard Curriculum Specialist visits for Dance in Terms 1 and 2 following the dance teachers training in New York allowed the faculty to fully understand the scope of the dance programme. We planned and undertook a faculty observation cycle, facilitated by Donna Costello (Julliard Curriculum Specialist) which allowed us to examine specific aspectsof the Juilliard Creative Classroom within our own team. This served as the basis for our Professional Development during Donna's second visit.
All students in Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 have had dance lessons throughout the year with Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 having 1 lesson weekly.
Outside the classroom we are making steps to increase the performance opportunities for Dance and Drama which in the first instance has been achieved by integrating them into concerts which have traditionally been Music events.
June 2019 (traditionally our Summer Music Concerts in Primary and Secondary) saw the presentation of Movie Magic a cinema themed Whole School Performing Arts event which featured the traditional Music ensembles with the addition of Drama items from Key Stage 3 students and Dance offerings from a mix of curricular and curricular items.
