Information for Schools
The Southend Festival of Performing Arts makes efforts to schedule classes outside of school hours for those of secondary school age. We would like to stress, however, that visits to the Festival are widely acknowledged to be valuable educational experiences and would encourage those in a position, to grant leave of absence from school to regard them as such. The Festival’s links with the local Music Hub, together with it’s designation as a Learning Destination under the auspices of the Children’s University scheme, provide further and substantial evidence of the educational nature attributed to the Festival.
The National Curriculum and Southend Musical Festival
TheSouthend Festival of Performing Arts fully supports and underpins the National Curriculum, providing a vehicle for teachers & parents, to develop important skills in children, in a fun, engaging way and giving them the opportunity to present their work in front of an audience, possibly for the first time and to receive professional feedback from a specialist in each field.
The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
perform, listen to, review, and evaluate music
learn to sing and to use their voices
have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated
We are committed to providing a variety of classes which allow pupils the opportunity to attain the requirements of each of the key stages of the national curriculum, including but not limited to:
using their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
playing instruments musically, fluently and with accuracy and expression
playing and performing confidently in a range of solo and ensemble contexts
develop a deepening understanding of the music that they perform
The benefits of speech & drama and the power of imaginative play are becoming increasingly recognised, and as such, many nurseries, preschools and schools place real value on these areas and work hard to provide their children with a positive experience of drama. From Key Stage 1 onwards, drama is now a statutory part of English in the National Curriculum.
The Spoken Language section now reads as follows:
“All pupils should be enabled to participate in and gain knowledge, skills and understanding associated with the artistic practice of drama. Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre performances”
As with the music sections, our Speech & Drama selection committee considers very carefully the classes which will support the national curriculum key stages, to help children to develop all the necessary skills.