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Drama Club (primary extra-curricular)

The Playing Space primary-school courses are designed for groups of fifteen students. Our teacher can work unassisted. Alternatively, if the school provides an assistant, the group can include up to twenty students.

We run all of our extra-curricular courses as an after-school drama club or a school-hours drama club for pupils who will benefit from ‘special time’ away from the classroom.

We tailor all of our courses to suit the particular needs of your school. The structure, content, and price of the classes depends on the number of students attending, their age, and the time and location of the class. Click here for a guide to our fees.

Please contact us to discuss your needs, and we will prepare a full course overview and a quote.

Act, Dance and Sing!
Level Reception to Year 2
A general introduction to drama and performance for young beginners.

Each course follows a theme. Themes include

  • Traditional Tales
  • Around the World
  • Join the Circus
  • Travel Through History
  • Space Explorers
  • Magic and Mystery

Students learn the basics of using the body and voice to create, explore and present imaginary worlds. They also learn the importance of collaboration when working on a dramatic story.

Each class has three components:
Dance about! – coordination and movement
Sing and shout! – communication, listening, rhythm and rhyme
Act it out! – concentration, improvisation and characterisation

At the beginning of the course, each student receives a sticker chart. This chart gradually fills up with stickers as they progress through the course.

Some time in every lesson is devoted to developing and rehearsing a short drama, which students present to parents and teachers during the final session.

Solo and Group Acting
Level Year 3 to Year 6
Prepare, rehearse and perform individual and group pieces.

Students…

  • Become familiar with classic English-language plays and stories
  • Understand and engage with the written word
  • Discover how speech reveals character
  • Explore different rehearsal techniques
  • Grow in confidence as they practise being actors
  • Learn from others’ work as well as their own
  • Learn how to prepare for a performance

Skills and knowledge

  • Teamwork: developing mutual trust
  • Stagecraft: using the playing space
  • Voice and body: how to convey character and construct a performance
  • Vocal technique: articulation and projection
  • Sustaining a performance through concentration and focus
  • The mechanics of putting on a play: costumes, props, and scenery
  • The progress from rehearsal to performance

Final presentation
During the final session, students present to parents and teachers a showcase of the monologues, duologues and scenes they have worked on during the course.

Devised Drama
Level Year 3 to Year 6
Work together to create, develop and perform a dramatic story.

Students…

  • Work together and make collective decisions
  • Express their ideas confidently, spontaneously and freely
  • Listen to and value the ideas of others
  • Explore ways of sequencing, constructing and presenting stories
  • Discover what characterisation means
  • Take delight in seeing their ideas take shape as a drama

Skills and knowledge

  • Teamwork: developing mutual trust
  • Teamwork: contributing to group work
  • Improvisation
  • Shaping themes, story threads, and characters into a coherent, enjoyable narrative
  • Adapting and preparing a story for theatrical presentation
  • The mechanics of putting on a play: costumes, props, and scenery
  • The progress from rehearsal to performance

Final presentation
During the final session, students present their drama to parents and teachers. At the end of the course, each student receives a souvenir copy of the story the group has devised.

Verse and Prose
Level Year 3 to Year 6
Discover inspiring poems and stories and learn how to read them aloud.

Students…

  • Become familiar with classic English-language poems and stories
  • Understand and engage with the written word
  • Discover how to translate the written word into an oral performance
  • Practise using the body and voice to engage an audience
  • Develop an appreciation of the possibilities of the English language
  • Grow in confidence the more they read aloud

Skills and knowledge

  • Key differences between verse and prose
  • Language awareness: understanding punctuation
  • Voice and body: how to articulate and project
  • Facial expression and gesture
  • Reading aloud: varying pace, pitch, volume and tone
  • Reading aloud: narrative and character voices
  • Reading aloud: how to express the shape of a poem

Final presentation
During the final session, students present to parents and teachers a recital of the pieces of verse and prose they have most enjoyed working on during the course.

Creative Writing
Level Year 3 to Year 6
Turn pictures in the mind into words on paper.

Students…

  • discover innovative techniques for:
    • unlocking the imagination
    • thinking creatively
    • writing creatively
  • share ideas to produce group creative writing
  • channel their own ideas into individual creative writing
  • enrich their English vocabulary
  • gain appreciation of writing styles

Skills and knowledge

  • Key strategies for thinking creatively
  • Key principles of writing verse, prose and drama
  • Language use: how to describe
  • Language use: how to punctuate
  • Teamwork: developing mutual trust
  • Teamwork: contributing to group work
  • Reading aloud: how to share words with an audience

Final presentation
During the final session, students present to parents and teachers a recital of the pieces they are most proud of having written during the course. Each student will also receive a souvenir booklet containing all the pieces written during the course.

Improvisation and Mime
Level Year 3 to Year 6
Learn how to act without a script.

Students…

  • Share much fun and laughter
  • Explore ways of portraying character and setting silently and with words
  • Explore ways of telling a story silently and with words
  • Discover the importance of plot in a dramatic story
  • Collaborate closely in an atmosphere of trust
  • Gain the confidence to work freely and without fear of criticism
  • Practise thinking quickly and trusting their instincts

Skills and knowledge

  • Physical technique: acting with the body
  • Vocal technique: pace, clarity and volume
  • Stagecraft: using the playing space
  • Sustaining a performance through concentration and focus
  • Teamwork: mutual trust and support
  • Teamwork: creative collaboration
  • Giving a dramatic scene a beginning, middle and ending

Final presentation
During the final session, parents and teachers are invited to an open workshop. The students will demonstrate various improvisation exercises, including some based on scenarios suggested by the audience.