Drama: should it be taught in schools?

At school I went to drama after school clubs, took drama lessons in year 7, 8 and 9 as well as undertaking a Drama GCSE (outside of school due to the English Baccalaureate) and an A-Level in Drama. All of this led to me pursuing a Drama degree and (hopefully) and Postgraduate Degree in Musical Theatre. Without all of this, I would've never been able to pursue my dreams of performing on stage as drama lessons aren't cheap. And as a working class girl who went to school in a very deprived area, drama was the one thing I could have in common with my fellow classmates. However, the Senior School I went to has now stopped teaching drama ALL TOGETHER. The school now no longer has a drama teacher or a real performing arts curriculum, even though not only 5 years ago it was a SCHOOL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS! Now many people may say that this is good and will give the children ample time to focus on proper subjects. But if you look at the school from when I went to now you will see some stark differences in behaviour, grades and the overall satisfaction.

Looking at the state of the school when I left, it had the highest GCSE and A-Level results it had had in over 15 years. Everyone had 100% pass rate. Fast forward three years and the school is barely scraping at a 50% pass rate. Now how does this correlate with the taking away of drama lessons, well let me tell you. Drama was a place where kids who weren't academically brilliant could escape, those who were naughty found a space to really explore who they were as a person, those who were quite smart could escape from the pressures of always being the best. Drama lessons offered students confidence, a place to grow and learn how to fail without all of the external pressure of grades and expectations. Drama in my school brought all of these children together and helped them to truly find out who they were as a person in a world that constantly asks them to be something else. I believe that the removal of drama and the rest of the performing arts as part of the national curriculum has negatively affected my old schools performance as you are not allowing children a safe space to breathe and escape from the pressures of GCSEs and A-Levels.

"The most important thing we can do is allow children to play" and by taking away drama from the national curriculum you are taking away students rights to pursue a career in something creative or just to enjoy themselves. After all, learning is supposed to be fun, or have the Government forgot that.

#drama #gcse #alevel