What we do
Essentially Dance is a unique programme designed to give teachers and TAs the skills they need to teach Ballroom and Latin American dance in their schools. The programme has been designed to enable the dances to be taught both inside and outside the National Curriculum for PE, therefore giving schools independence to use their new skills for community events whilst also enriching the curriculum offer.
Training
Each course is offered locally to a minimum of 5 schools and a maximum of 20 schools with up to 2 delegates per school attending the training. We train teachers in the Waltz, Cha Cha Cha, Quickstep and Jive over the space of a year at 3 CPD days. On day 1 we cover Beginners steps, on day 2 we concentrate on the Intermediate steps and on day 3 we look at the Advanced level.
.jpg)
Resource
Alongside the 3 days CPD for up to 2 delegates per school, we also provide a supportive resource covering both the dance steps and National Curriculum requirements for dance in PE.
The resource consists of:
Further Services
In the term that a cluster of schools completes their Advanced training, we will offer them the opportunity to take part in a competition, organised by us.
We can offer whole school training for inset days. We will cover 2 of the dances available (the choice is the school’s) in a National Curriculum framework over the course of a day for up to 40 staff members. If the school then wishes to receive training in the other 2 dances, this can be arranged for another day’s session.
We are currently running a pilot project in Kirklees in conjunction with the PCT working with Physical Activity Co-ordinators. We are training the co-ordinators to deliver Essentially Dance (minus the National Curriculum emphasis) to the older population in sheltered accommodation and community settings with the view to running intergenerational learning and events with the schools that are also doing Essentially Dance. Following the success of this pilot, we will look to offer it to all areas.
