Dance at Telford Park School is a subject you cannot hide in. Pupils create movement, rehearse it and perform it in front of other people, and in doing so they build a kind of confidence that transfers well beyond the studio.
Actions are taught in short phrases and repeated until the body holds them, before any full routine is attempted. Every lesson begins by running last week's material, because movement is forgotten faster than facts.
Pupils learn dance actions, devices and world styles including Bhangra and Gumboot in Year 7, choreograph from a stimulus and trace the Charleston, the Jive and Disco in Year 8, and use props and themes such as mental health in Year 9. Alongside the technique they practise something harder: being watched, taking feedback and going again.