Great Ballard’s students have just returned from the Worthing Music & Arts Festival where they have enjoyed unprecedented success. Our students placed in no less than 15 categories, winning 4 age groups and adding 13 more runners’ up certificates. Our Head of Drama, Katherine Mustafa, has been teaching at the school for 6 years but the interest in drama and in small group LAMDA sessions has never been higher.
The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art offer courses in Communication Skills such as Public Speaking or Verse and Prose, and in Performance Skills such as Acting, Shakespeare or Devising. LAMDA courses are taught all across the globe and give students a recognised qualification that can earn them UCAS points for university entry. But as Mrs. Mustafa acknowledges, “LAMDA is more than just a hobby or a qualification, it’s genuinely life-enhancing. It gives pupils of all ages the chance to practise their public speaking; to engage with an audience and to develop the skills to present themselves with confidence to the wider world”. For anyone considering a career in performing arts, LAMDA is a natural pathway to help them develop their craft and build up a repertoire of performances in different genres. It’s also a great additional subject to take for those considering a Drama GCSE and it has proved increasingly popular among our senior pupils.
But LAMDA isn’t just for those who love to perform. Mrs Mustafa acknowledges, “Coming out of Covid, we are helping more children than ever before find strategies to deal with their anxiety and ways to build their social interaction skills and we have found LAMDA, with its focus on the individual, has helped to build the confidence of pupils of all ages.” That hard work is continued in class with all pupils from Year 3 to Year 9 enjoying a weekly drama session, with the subject also proving to be a popular option when it comes to GCSE.
During sessions, all students learn to collaborate and to articulate their thoughts and ideas. They are given the chance to explore language, to listen and question and to enhance their oracy skills. Through poetry, fiction and plays, they learn empathy for others, and experience a depth and breadth of cultural literacy. They support each other through performance nerves and mistakes. They learn how to be part of a team but also how to stand alone and make sure their voice is heard.
It’s fun and creative of course and the exams, shows and successes are a real joy. But the real power of drama and LAMDA are the life-skills pupils develop. These are harder to measure but sit right at the heart of the school’s future-facing 4H curriculum. Not every pupil will go on to enjoy the successes those LAMDA students enjoyed last week, to enjoy a career on the stage or even to take GCSE drama but every student will leave Great Ballard more confident for their experience and that little bit readier for life beyond school.
If you’d like to find out more about Great Ballard arts or our LAMDA and drama curriculums please do contact the school directly: office@greatballard.co.uk