Drama and dance remain on the sidelines

The draft programmes of study for the new primary national curriculum in English, while giving detailed specifications of what pupils should learn, make only passing reference to drama. There will be an expectation that pupils develop their spoken English, but this will be through poetry reading, debate and presentations. Furthermore, unlike art and design, and music, neither drama nor dance will become compulsory subjects in their own right. Whether or not children aged 4 to 11 are taught these subjects will remain at the discretion of individual schools, though the Government’s aim is that, other than the core subjects of English and science, the compulsory programmes of study in the primary curriculum will be much shorter to “allow for the maximum level of innovation at school level”. Described by Education Secretary Michael Gove as a “starting point for debate on content, not the conclusion”, the new curriculum proposals have been published to stimulate discussion and inform changes to the content, prior to a full public consultation at the end of this year. The Cultural Learning Alliance has described the draft proposals as “all very prescriptive and content-based”, and Patrice Baldwin, Chair of National Drama, in a letter to the Times Educational Supplement, described them as “…an educational and cultural disgrace as far as drama goes. Michael Gove has ignored the recommendation of the Henley Review of Cultural Education in England that drama should be made a curriculum subject.”