The following aims and objectives are taken from the renewed Primary Framework for Literacy and Mathematics. Links to various sections of the Drama Resource website have been added so that teachers can find the appropriate drama resources.

In the drama strand most children will learn to:

• Use dramatic techniques, including work in role to explore ideas and texts
• Create, share and evaluate ideas and understanding through drama

Foundation Stage
Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences

Year 1
Explore familiar themes and characters through improvisation and roleplay
Act out their own and well-known stories, using voices for characters
Discuss why they like a performance

Year 2
Adopt appropriate roles in small or large groups and consider alternative courses of action
Present part of traditional stories, their own stories or work drawn from different parts of the curriculum for members of their own class
Consider how mood and atmosphere are created in live or recorded performance

Year 3
Present events and characters through dialogue to engage the interest of an audience
Use some drama strategies to explore stories or issues
Identify and discuss qualities of others’ performances, including gesture, action and costume

Year 4
Create roles showing how behaviour can be interpreted from different viewpoints
Develop scripts based on improvisation
Comment constructively on plays and performances, discussing effects and how they are achieved

Year 5
Reflect on how working in role helps to explore complex issues
Perform a scripted scene making use of dramatic conventions
Use and recognise the impact of theatrical effects in drama

Year 6
Improvise using a range of drama strategies and conventions to explore themes such as hopes, fears and desires
Consider the overall impact of a live or recorded performance, identifying dramatic ways of conveying characters’ ideas and building tension
Devise a performance considering how to adapt the performance for a specific audience

Year 6 progression to Year 7
Develop drama techniques to explore in role a variety of situations and texts or respond to stimuli
Develop drama techniques and strategies for anticipating, visualising and problem solving in different learning contexts
Work collaboratively to devise and present scripted and unscripted pieces that maintain the attention of an audience, and reflect on and evaluate their own presentations and those of others