Improving pupils' writing through drama

Summary

This infant school has a strong commitment to providing an arts entitlement for all of its pupils. In this project, it introduced extra drama sessions for reception, year 1 and year 2 pupils with the aim of improving children's attainment in writing. The project involved activities such as retelling and re-enacting simple stories, developing new endings to dramatic scenes and working on characterisation.

Learning through drama had a significant impact on the writing skills of children of all abilities. Higher ability children developed their understanding of story structure and narrative, while those of lower ability developed new confidence in writing independently. By the end of the project, nearly all of the children had a much more positive attitude to both writing and drama. Taking part in drama increased the children's confidence and, unexpectedly, resulted in improved behaviour in some cases.

However, a few reception children lost interest in drama because it was linked to writing. This raised questions about how drama should be related to writing for younger children, which the school is exploring further.