Blended arts education (dance and drama)

Every child and young person – no matter their background or circumstance – deserves a chance to participate in quality arts education.

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Quality dance and drama education engages, inspires, and enriches students to reach their creative and expressive potential.

The Blended Arts Education Program (Dance and Drama) is part of a suite of programs to improve educational outcomes for Victorian government rural and regional schools.

Classroom teachers are provided with lesson plans and other support materials that allow them to facilitate these lessons and further Dance and Drama learning in the classroom.

The program will run over three years (2021 – 2023) and has been extended to run till mid 2025, with 30 new schools participating each year. The program is aligned to the Victorian Curriculum F-10: Dance and Drama.

Ausdance Victoria and Drama Victoria have been engaged to provide regional primary schools with live-streamed lessons and face-to-face incursions in Dance or Drama over terms 2 and 3 each year for students in years 3 to 4 and 5 to 6.

Funding

The Victorian Government committed an additional $1.97 million to continue to provide a suite of outreach and virtual programs to improve educational outcomes for rural and regional students. This builds on the $3.74 million provided over the last four years. The Blended Arts Education Program (Dance and Drama) is funded through the Rural and Regional Education Reform budget.

Background

Many schools in rural and regional areas do not have access to dance and drama specialist teachers.

The Blended Arts Education Program (Dance and Drama) aims to support schools in rural and regional Victoria to deliver dance and drama programs. In doing so, opportunities for students to engage with dance and drama will increase and teachers will strengthen their capability to deliver quality dance and drama programs, in line with the Victorian Curriculum F-10.

The department has engaged Ausdance Victoria and Drama Victoria to deliver the Blended Arts Program (Dance and Drama) over the next three years. Ausdance Victoria and Drama Victoria are professional associations specialising in dance and drama pedagogy, specifically aligned to the Victorian Curriculum F-10.

For further information, contact: studentlearning@education.vic.gov.au.

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