The LAMDA Courses in Co-Curricular Activities (CCA)

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is the oldest specialist drama school in the U.K., founded in 1861. As well as granting degrees to undergraduate students, the school runs internationally recognised exams in a range of communication and performance skills for all ages. 

For pupils who have begun to grow confident in their English, taking the LAMDA exams can be an excellent way to further those skills. We focus on delivering supportive and inclusive environments for pupils to explore their learning. Speaking or performing in front of strangers can be a vulnerable experience, and we focus on ensuring pupils receive the tuition they need with a level of sensitivity and care to ensure they are given the best opportunities to flourish. 

The LAMDA syllabuses are organised into two main strands – Performance and Communication. As pupils progress through the levels, they have the opportunity to learn, discuss, and use a range of specialised skills in delivering and analysing texts. However, they are also built on a foundation of shared skills, which means that children succeeding in one exam are often able to explore exams of a similar level in other areas.  

The Communication exams focus on three distinct areas:

• Public Speaking, where pupils are judged on how they construct and deliver prepared speeches on specific topics, with a focus on understanding the material well enough and to not simply recite an essay.  

• Speaking Verse and Prose, where pupils are judged on their ability to memorise and recite poems and prose extracts, again conveying the sense of the written word, and their knowledge of linguistic devices, genre, structure, and impact of important texts. 

• Reading for Performance, where pupils are judged on the quality of their reading aloud and how they convey the meaning of the written word effectively, and their ability to recognise, analyse, and link texts together thematically.  

The Performance exams are similarly structured: 

• Acting, where pupils are judged on memorising a monologue or duologue, their development and understanding of context and character, their knowledge of the types of drama, and in higher levels the different theories and approaches to acting that have developed in the Western world.  

• Devising Drama, where pupils write and perform dramatic scenes. They are judged not only on their delivery of the scenes but also their understanding of structure, narrative, and contextualising dialogue.  

• There are also a range of more specialised exams in the Performance strand, including Shakespeare, Musical Theatre, and Mime.  

LAMDA exams are an excellent way of bolstering skills in reading and oracy. They complement learning that takes place in English classes, allowing pupils to identify areas of interest and further them through focused study – whether that is a child who loves reading, a child who wants to build their confidence speaking in front of people, or someone who wants to explore drama. 

We have offered LAMDA courses as part of our CCA programme for the past four years. Pupils from Primary explore a range of LAMDA courses all the way up to Junior High and Secondary School. Our passionate teachers have a range of backgrounds and experience that helps the pupils engage with the learning. We have several levels of classes available in the Primary school for Speaking Verse and Prose, Public Speaking, and Acting, while Junior High has a focus on Public Speaking.   

As one of the first crop of teachers trained to deliver LAMDA at Wellington Hangzhou, it has been amazing to see the delivery of courses develop and mature, and to see pupils grow as they find success in the exams. Equally, the LAMDA courses have been a proving ground to find new talent for our performing arts endeavours.  

Our pupils have reached some incredible highs over the four years we have offered the courses. Last year, across our campuses in Hangzhou, the majority of pupils did not just pass the exams but received Merit or Distinction grades. Teachers and pupils have poured love, effort, and attention into the LAMDA exams and we are thrilled to see how they will continue to grow over the coming year.