Dawns Hwyl a Sbri is the new name for our 2½ - 5 year olds classes.
As our lessons have historically been running bi-lingual, and no one else offers anything like this, we thought why not embrace it and market our lessons as such!
Hwyl a Sbri will provide structured, full of fun dance classes to children under 6 years old bi-lingually in both English and Welsh. We will inspire a love for dance and movement through engaging, age appropriate music and lesson plans led by our nurturing, caring teachers. Our goal is to contribute towards children's physical, linguistic, social and emotional development to give them the best foundation to enter our other classes and to excel in all other environments.
With our school now being in it's 5 year, some of our older students are reaching the age where they will begin to learn graded syllabus, enter examinations and start really training in their chosen dance style. With this being the case, we thought it was high time to give our curriculum a shake up.
With the majority of our staff being fluent Welsh speakers and our studio's location drawing in a lot of Welsh speaking students, we have always incorporated Welsh into the lessons and conversed with the students in their first language. All of the children love this! With the Welsh language and use of incidental Welsh being a big part of English medium education in Wales, all children are now expected to know and understand some Welsh. So even our students who are not in Welsh schools and without Welsh speaking parents love being able to, and get excited by, using words they've learnt in school or picking up new Welsh verbs in class.
As our lessons have historically been running bi-lingual, and no one else offers anything like this, we thought why not embrace it and market our lessons as such!
For all of our current dancers and parents.. don't worry. We have been trialling the new music, exercises and activities etc. alongside preparing for the show. So while the re-brand is all very exciting, the lessons will be the same thing that the children already love, but with even more of the music, exercises and activities that they have been really excited about over the last couple of months.
We have refreshed the curriculum and improved our schemes of work to make our Hwyl a Sbri lessons jam packed full of fun while being highly focused on developing the children's skills in line with the mile stones for their age and preparing them with all of the dance foundation they need for the over 6 lessons.
A focus on child development
The children will develop and master gross motor skills suitable for their age and progression such as jumping, hopping, skipping, bilateral movements and balancing. These will build towards critical dance movement patterns that are practised to music and build their co-ordination, strength, flexibility and posture and prepare them for I.S.T.D examination classes that they start at 6 years old.
The children will develop their language skills in both English and Welsh. In line with their age groups language mile stones, children will learn lots of new words in both languages, verbs and how to build sentences. The music, communication with the teachers and their peers will contribute towards their learning.
The children will develop their social skills while taking part in a group activity, independent of their parents. The lessons will nurture the children's creativity and imagination, while learning to play, take turns and collaborate with their peers and listen and follow instruction from their teachers.
How does a bilingual class work?
The lesson will be as accessible to both our English and Welsh speaking students. Our approach has been perfected over 5 years of running lessons to classes mostly weighted 60% English /40% Welsh speaking students. We mostly give direction and instructions bilingually, repeating commands in both languages and give praise and encouragement in either language. Individual conversations with students are held in their most dominant language so that they always feel confident and understood while communicating.
The themed narrative of the lessons will introduce children to new dance steps, words and skills and prolonged practice will help them to master all of these.
What music is used?
The music is one of the most important elements of our Hwyl a Sbri lessons. We use both English and Welsh music, that we know the children will love and be excited to hear in class. Music from television and film, as well as their favourite songs from the charts and school, and original songs written purposefully to teach children how to dance. We also choose the best music from the I.S.T.D syllabus to introduce some of the exercises that they will then perfect in the over 6 classes.
All of the music used is specifically written for younger children and most include meaningful lyrics teaching children about subjects in English and in Welsh including information on the planets, animals and helping others.
What happens once my child turns 6?
Either when your child turns 6 or starts Year 1 (depending on at what point in the year we re-timetable and assess the classes) they will move to our other lessons. They can either choose one discipline (Modern Theatre & Tap, Ballet or Commercial Hip hop) or take multiple classes. Children in the Modern Theatre & Tap and Ballet classes will have the option to enter exams whereas the Commercial Hip hop class is a recreational class where children can dance for fun and learn routines.
Take a look at how you'r child's dance journey with us will progress and the structure of our lessons here.
Themed terms
Each term will have a different theme and along with it, new music, goals, skills, and exercises. All of the themes have been designed to suit both girls and boys and are age appropriate.
We are very excited to start our Hwyl a Sbri lessons at the end of February. The children will automatically start on our new curriculums whether under 6 years old in the Hwyl a Sbri lessons or over 6 in our split disciplined classes straight after the show.