Dance Workshops
To provide technical and creative dance workshops for pupils of The Iffley Academy. The workshops were also a great partnership teaching opportunity for our year 13 students, who helped to lead the sessions as well as dancing alongside pupils in the final performance.
Aims
To provide valuable dance teaching opportunities and dance studio facilities for the pupils of The Iffley Academy. The need for the partnership was identified from a general lack of dance opportunities in our local area and the valuable teaching opportunity that could be provided to our sixth form dance students.
The critical factors for success were the use of physical theatre to engage the interest of participating students and the intimate dance studio space used to host the workshop which allowed pupils to feel safe and confident.
The immediate beneficiaries of the workshop were the participating students and their teachers who gained a greater understanding of dance techniques and performance skills. The workshop was a big confidence boost to all attendees and for many was the first time they had performed dance to an audience outside of their peers.
The sixth form students helping to lead the workshops also gained a better understanding of how to support students with specific educational needs and enjoyed using their own creativity and dance knowledge.
Background
The partnership opportunity came about because of an interest in developing more dance opportunities in the local community by a specialist dance teacher within the St Helen's PE staff.
The workshop was so successful it led to the introduction of a choreography competition which Iffley have been taking part in annually since it was first introduced.
There are plans to return to Iffley academy next year with a street dance workshop to engage with more pupils in their own setting.
Resources
Critical resources for this initiative were the use of the St Helen's dance studio and a member of the St Helen's PE staff. This event ran over 2 consecutive sessions of an hour and a half long (3hrs total). There was no financial cost to this partnership activity other than transport.
Impact
The students enjoyed the opportunity to learn a new dance style in a new performance space. The qualitative assessment of the activity came from pupil feedback to their teachers and through the lovely thank you letters and cards that Iffley Academy students wrote to St Helen's after the event.
"to the 6th form students at St Helen and St Katharine School. Thank you for being kind and fantastic at teaching us dance. I love working with you."
"Thank you for everything it was awesome being in your school. I was the best experience I've ever had and hope to do this again one day."
Pupil Involvement
Participants were St Helen's 6th form student leaders and a group of 12 male and female Yr7 & 8 Iffley Academy pupils.
Frequency
This will be an ongoing initiative which we will look to expand to other schools in the near future.
