ABSTRACT
Drama has a pivotal place in the new National Curriculum, not only as a learning tool for other subjects, but as a practical artistic subject in its own right. Through its inclusion in English, drama has a significant part to play in the statutory requirement of the primary curriculum, and gives drama a central role in developing all major aspects of English. In addition, the 1988 Education Reform Act requires school curricula to be ‘balanced and broadly based’ (DES, 1989). The National Curriculum is not the whole curriculum. Dividing the National Curriculum into subjects is a way of describing the curriculum, not teaching it. Subject Orders are only the prescribed part of the curriculum and there is a need to address a number of key issues related to drama in the whole curriculum.
