New training course! Dance in Primary Schools

Teaching dance in schools continues to be a contentious area.  Teachers have less time and less encouragement to deliver subjects not deemed priority areas by governmental policy.  And yet, children today are more anxious, more overweight and increasingly disconnected from their bodies.  Children need fundamental movement skills to be able to sit still in the classroom and be ready to learn.  And it is our responsibility as teachers to nurture their well-being (mental and physical) and their creativity.  Dance does all of this and more!

JumpStart have been teaching dance in Primary Schools for the last 15 years and we’ll be sharing all our knowledge during this special one-day event.  It’ll be jam-packed full of useful ideas to take away and immediately use in your classrooms.

You many not have received much (or any) advice on delivering dance, either during your PGCE, SCITT or GTP training, or during your teaching career.

Have you found yourself saying… “Dance isn’t an area I feel confident in”?  Or…”I find dance difficult to teach as I’m not creative”?  Some of the teachers that have been on previous JumpStart training events have said these exact words.  And yet by the end of the day, those same teachers are gushing about dance…”Can’t believe I was paid to have so much fun!  The kids will love what I take back!”…and “[I] find your courses so inspiring, practical and confidence giving that I can go back to school and use the ideas straight away with the help of the lesson plans”.

Maybe you would like to update your dance knowledge to make it more relevant to today’s children.  We’ll how you have to make dance more accessible to boys and how to incorporate a range of up-to-date and inspiring topics within your planning.

Alternatively you may be a dance graduate looking to teach Primary School Children.  Our ‘Dance in Primary Schools’ course will show you how to adapt your knowledge and transfer your skills to deliver dance to younger ones.

What will be covered during the event?

We will breakdown the basics of choreography – improvisation, selection, development – and how this can be applied in your own teaching.  We’ll examine the concepts of technique, performance and appreciation so that they can be incorporated within your planning.

We will also look at how classroom topics can be explored through dance, how to engage boys (especially those in year 5 and 6) and how to develop a dance idea.

Music is a big issue for many teachers and it’s the topic we get asked most about.  So we’ll be addressing music selection, give you a big list of all the tracks we use on a regular basis and how to go about finding your own.

Each delegate will receive a Dance Class in a Box pack, which will contain 3 ready-made lesson plans for you to take away and try out with your children. There will be one for Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.  There will also be a DVD of some of the key moves and techniques we’ll have covered in the session.

Your Dance Class in a Box contains…

Topics we will cover are…

• What is dance?  And what are movement objectives?
• What topics are suitable for primary-aged children and how to make them feel ‘current’ and relevant
• How to structure a dance class
• How to create a simple dance performance
• Warm up and cool down ideas
• Support and advice with choosing music
• Ideas for delivering an after-school dance club