A dance project aimed at contributing to positive culture change in schools also reinforced pupil learning and developed new approaches to teaching.

YDance, the national dance organisation for young people aged 3 to 21, developed Shake it Up, an interdisciplinary dance project for Scottish schools. The project is aimed at working with primary schools that were part of the Scottish Government’s Attainment Challenge, which drives forward improvements in education to ensure every pupil is encouraged to be the best they can be.

Shake it Up uses dance and a kinaesthetic learning approach to enhance a child’s learning in the context of the curriculum. The project places a dance tutor in education in a school for two years.

Stuart Hall, Kevin Lowden and Deja Lusk from the Network for Social and Educational Equity (NSEE) at the University of Glasgow conducted an evaluation of the Shake it Up initiative, which revealed the positive impact of the Shake It Up lessons on pupil learning and highlighted how the programme articulated well with Curriculum for Excellence.

Read the blog and report on the NSEE website

First published: 2 November 2020

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