How Perform helps

This Week's Focus

Below you can see what the children are focusing in classes this week. Click on other weeks to see what we've been doing or what is still to come.

Drama 4-7s
Drama 7-12s

2 Sept
9 Sept
16 Sept
23 Sept
30 Sept
7 Oct
14 Oct
21 Oct
28 Oct
30 Oct
4 Nov
11 Nov
18 Nov
25 Nov
9 Dec
16 Dec

Welcome to the autumn term

Filled with lots of fun ice-breaker games, we’ll welcome old faces back after the summer break and meet new friends who are joining Perform for the first time. We’ll get started on our fantastic new theme: Around the World.

Physical self-confidence

Physical confidence is displayed in the way we move our bodies, whether that’s to sit, stand, walk, dance or run. The good news is that changing the way we move can affect how we feel inside.

In Walk Like A Wallaby, we’ll explore different ways of moving which helps develop mobile coordination and the ability to express physical self-confidence.

Non-verbal communication

Children quickly understand the power of eye contact, facial expressions and gestures.

By breathing fire like a dragon, we’ll demonstrate the effect of non-verbal signals and encourage positive open communication.

Good manners

Good manners are at the heart of respect for ourselves and for others.

Baking a Mississippi Mud Pie using a recipe filled with politeness helps children understand the benefits of friendly and respectful exchanges.

Expressing our feelings

Bottling up our feelings can lead to pent-up frustration and moods. Learning how to express themselves allows children to distinguish them selves from others, reflects their beliefs and validates their ideas.

We’ll use an exercise which encour ages the children to open up and talk confidently about themselves.

Developing empathy

Empathy for others is a vital life skill enabling us to develop and maintain friendships. For actors, empathy allows you to take on the emotions of the character you are portraying.

Meeting the Zulu princess encourages the children to think about ways they can be welcoming to a new person in any situation.

Overcoming our inhibitions

Shyness or embarrassment is a normal reaction to unfamiliar situations but can inhibit social interactions and limit our achievements.

This week, we’ll practise overcoming our fears using a series of branching scenarios and then discuss whether we can see the positive results.

Delicious diction

Ensuring that people can hear what we’re saying is an important part of communicating clearly.

Performing tongue-twisters like the Pyramid Rap helps children explore fast rhyming patterns and increases their confidence and dexterity when speaking.

When to use a loud voice

Many children lack awareness of their vocal volume, speaking too loudly in quiet places or too softly elsewhere.

We’ll discuss different environments and how to decide on the “right” voice for different situations.

Spatial awareness

Being aware of one’s personal space helps us be considerate about the space we give to others.

Waddling like a penguin is an excellent starting point for thinking about the space we and others need to feel comfortable.

Standing up to bullying

Resilience is a fundamental skill which helps a child learn how to stay strong in difficult situations.

We play a game that role-plays the moment of decision when our child or their friend is being bullied and workshop strategies for resilience and self-confidence.

Actions and consequences

Learning about the consequences of our actions is a vital step in learning to make good life choices.

Linking this message to the effects of global warming, we’ll reinforce the importance of preserving the world around us.

I'm ready to perform!

Looking back at the skills we’ve learnt this term, we’ll recap using them when we’re on stage. We’ll consider physical self-confidence whilst being spatially aware, and practise excellent diction and vocal projection.

Final preparations for our show

It’s time to perfect our moves, vocals and body language now we’ve mastered our lines and dance routines. We’ll practise projecting our voices, moving with confidence and using excellent expression so that we’re ready for next week’s dress rehearsal. For costume inspiration visit performshop.co.uk

Dress rehearsal

A fun class where we’ll put the finishing touches to the shows, using top teamwork skills to make sure everyone is as ready as they can be.

Presentation week

We’ll be joined by family and friends to showcase the children’s performances, proudly demonstrating the wonderful progress everyone has made.

2 Sept
9 Sept
16 Sept
23 Sept
30 Sept
7 Oct
14 Oct
21 Oct
28 Oct
30 Oct
4 Nov
11 Nov
18 Nov
25 Nov
9 Dec
16 Dec

Welcome to the autumn term

Physical self-confidence

Physical confidence is displayed in the way we move our bodies, whether that’s to sit, stand, walk, dance or run. The good news is that changing the way we move can affect how we feel inside.

We’ll learn some confident rock star poses as we look at how body language and posture affect how we are perceived by others.

Non-verbal communication

Children quickly understand the power of eye contact, facial expressions and gestures.

By “throwing away” words, we’ll discover the most powerful communication is via gesture, eye contact, facial expression, posture and vocal intonation.

Good manners

Good manners are at the heart of respect for ourselves and for others.

We’ll role-play examples of good and bad manners, demonstrating the impact that bad manners can have on a situation and the negative impression they can leave.

Expressing our feelings

We’ll challenge the children to try to articulate their emotions and discuss when, how and with whom it’s best to share them.

Developing empathy

Empathy for others is a vital life skill enabling us to develop and maintain friendships. For actors, empathy allows you to take on the emotions of the character you are portraying.

We’ll discuss the different between sympathy and empathy and explore the power of emotional memory.

Overcoming our inhibitions

Shyness or embarrassment is a normal reaction to unfamiliar situations but can inhibit social interactions and limit our achievements.

We’ll use games and exercises to see how inhibitions can affect us, then explore role-play scenarios to find ways to deal with them.

Delicious diction

Ensuring that people can hear what we’re saying is an important part of communicating clearly.

We’ll learn about diction, clarity and volume as we practise speaking activities which enhance public speaking confidence.

When to use a loud voice

Many children lack awareness of their vocal volume, speaking too loudly in quiet places or too softly elsewhere.

A loud voice can be used to our advantage when acting but this is not always the right choice. We’ll look at appropriate times to use vocal projection.

Spatial awareness

Being aware of one’s personal space helps us be considerate about the space we give to others.

We’ll look at how to stay focused on our own role while also being mindful of what our fellow actors are doing at the same time.

Standing up to bullying

Resilience is a fundamental skill which helps a child learn how to stay strong in difficult situations.

We’ll learn some techniques for dealing with being teased or picked on and who we should talk to if we’re in this situation.

Actions and consequences

Learning about the consequences of our actions is a vital step in learning to make good life choices.

We’ll discuss what consequences are and act out scenarios using ‘what would happen if…’ as we look at how different actions can lead to different outcomes.