Arts
At Kent College Prep, pupils from Nursery to Year 6, enjoy drama and music as part of their weekly curriculum. They all have regular opportunities to perform in class, take part in class assemblies and Christmas productions with performances from Year 1 held in the Countess of Wessex Theatre.
Many studies have concluded that children who participate in performing arts enjoy improved performance in their academic subjects; confidence gained in one area tends to spill out into other areas of learning. The main point, however, is that children enjoy creative subjects.
Drama and Dance
Drama and Dance
Drama is important to building well rounded, creative young individuals who have the confidence to take on challenges. Drama lessons are an encouraging space where students can develop confidence to express themselves and share their creative ideas. The curriculum is designed to develop transferable skills including communication, cooperation, creativity, emotional understanding and empathy.
Pupils can take Speech and Drama lessons, where they work towards both Vanguard and LAMDA exams, exploring different genres of poetry performance, acting and mime.
While dance forms an integral part of the drama curriculum, there are many opportunities to explore passions and interests further in dance classes that include ballet, pop dance, tap, modern or jazz.
Music
Music is very much at the heart of life at Kent College Prep and is studied by all year groups from Nursery onwards. Music teaching incorporates tasks in listening and appraising, performance and composition. Pupils are encouraged to use subject specific terminology to appraise music and study a range of musical genres from different aspects of music history and world music.
The 'music for all’ ethos at the school ensures all pupils can join a music club and are involved in assemblies and major events. Termly concerts and annual performances provide opportunities for all Prep pupils and they are often joined by musicians from the Senior School and visiting professional musicians.
Many pupils participate in the numerous clubs, choirs, orchestra and other instrumental ensembles. There are opportunities for pupils to learn a wide range of instruments through peripatetic music lessons delivered by visiting specialist teachers.
In a Year 6 English lesson on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the forest, pupils were highly motivated to use the environment as a stage and took time to stop and listen to what they could hear and look at what they could see.
