School Hopes for National Distribution of Resource Pack

Beverley: A town school that specialises in performing arts has created a resource pack to help other schools with the subject.

Longcroft School and Performing Arts College has put together a guide with advice for teachers on how to assess pupils in the subject.

Copies of the guide are now available to teachers across the country.

The guide has been developed over the past four years and is made up of a booklet, CD ROM and poster.

It was originally created to assess year six pupils about to make the transition from primary school to secondary school, but can be used to assess children aged four to 14 years.

This new method of assessment grades pupils on their performance and production skills in drama, music and dance and allows them to demonstrate their current level of knowledge and give an indication of the direction they are moving in.

Sara McIntyre, performing arts college manager at Longcroft, said: "The development of the guide has been an exciting and hugely rewarding experience.

"We identified the need to develop a guide as there is nothing else that combines dance, drama and music in this format.

"This is very much a first and we would like to see it adopted nationally.

"As a performing arts college, we thought it would be useful for students from local feeder schools to arrive with an assessment level in the arts, but the problem was identifying how we could make this happen."

The guide costs pounds19.99 and is available from Ms McIntyre by calling (01482) 862171.

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