'Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I’ll remember, let me do and I’ll understand'

What is the contribution of drama to the curriculum? 

The National Curriculum says that drama will be taught as part of the English Curriculum but drama also forms part of a balanced arts curriculum and makes a rich contribution as a cross curricular learning medium.
Drama has more to offer than simply helping children to acquire specific curriculum skills and techniques. A school which provides a genuine drama entitlement will be offering students regular opportunities to:

• Experience a variety of dramatic genres and forms
• Examine and determine their personal attitudes and values in respect of ethical and moral issues, and the nature of right and wrong
• Extend and develop their understanding of the full range of narrative art forms, including written and oral story-telling, and individual and collective play-making
• Develop a critical awareness of drama
  celebrate the uniqueness of their school community through performance and presentation
• Explore historical and contemporary contexts and examine motivations and relationships of those involved
  
  Drama has learning objectives through which we can:
  
  Make and interpret stories through which students make sense of the world around them
• Learn about theatre form - including acting styles and theatre crafts
• Consider the skills of presentation, communication and the role of the audience
• Appreciate drama created in other cultures
• Knowledge - by being involved in the 'virtual experience' of a drama, students learn
  ‘hard’ information i.e. facts, figures, names, dates - what? why? how? who? when?  and why actions and motives of historical characters were as they were and their relevance for today

Personal and Social - drama is for the individual but is also a social encounter so students learn about:

Group membership and allied skills like tolerance, diplomacy, leadership, behaviour and responsibility

• Appreciation of other points of view
• Self-image and self-esteem
• Thinking beyond local issues and self experience
• Language - vocabulary, tone, register
• Personal morals and values
  
  Subsequent learning - via the 'virtual experience', drama assists:
  
  Conceptual learning by 'humanising' the concept;
• Other curriculum areas including other arts;
• Languages, humanities, science;
• In developing the ethos of the whole curriculum and the whole school life.