Primary Drama Curriculum: The first step

‘If you don't know where you're going, you're unlikely to end up there.’ – Forrest Gump

In an ideal world, all primary schools would have Drama taught well throughout the school, by teachers who had received recent drama training. The school would have created and agreed an ambitious, coherent Drama curriculum which was evidently being followed. The curriculum would be reviewed regularly and there would be a highly motivated, knowledgeable Drama subject leader, with great leadership skills, recent Drama leadership training and sufficient leadership time.

This is an ideal, and the reality is usually different. Drama is a main artform, but the national curriculum of England does not have Drama as a separate subject at KS1-3. Subject leaders of Drama in England may find it helpful to look at the curriculum content and guidance of other countries. Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence and the new curriculum in Wales have Drama as a subject within Expressive Arts. Northern Ireland has Drama as a subject within The Arts. Subject leaders could also look at the ill-fated, primary national curriculum for England, proposed by Sir Jim Rose. It positioned Drama as a subject within an area of learning, called ‘Understanding the Arts’. More recently, the Oak National Academy published a Drama curriculum for primary schools (available online). It underpinned its online Drama lessons.