Skills for Life: Music, Dance and Drama
Music, dance, and drama is a Pearson Skills for Life unit in which learners take a performance or production role in a music, dance or drama production, work with others to prepare and rehearse, and demonstrate a range of preparation and performance skills, with Level 1 and Level 2 learners describing or explaining their role. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life Award, Certificate or Diploma, from Entry 1 to Level 2. Digital demand is low: no assessment criterion needs technology. Annexe C links the unit to audio and visual tools and online research into Welsh performing arts, and learners must reference sources and acknowledge any AI.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of digital work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: demonstrate a few basic skills, an adequate range of skills (two or three) or a range of performance skills and techniques (three or four) in a role in a music, dance or drama performance. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, adapting Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief or devising their own, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each of Level 1 and Level 2: describe (Level 1) or explain (Level 2) and undertake preparation for a performance or production role in a music, dance or drama production, demonstrating a range of competent (Level 1) or effective (Level 2) preparation and performance skills and techniques. Centres choose the type of evidence and set and mark the assessment, internally verified and quality assured by Pearson standards verification. Graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Evaluating and improving digital content
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Using audio and visual tools in rehearsal and performance
Annexe C links the unit to audio and visual tools, such as recording rehearsals, playing backing tracks or running sound and lighting in a production role. Level 2 learners are expected to use reflection to shape their performance, which recorded rehearsals can support. This is suggested by the cross-curricular mapping only; no assessment criterion requires technology.
DCF: Creating digital content, Evaluating and improving digital content
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils film a 30 second section of a group dance on a tablet and watch it back to spot one moment where they were out of time.
- Year 8
- Pupils record a short drama scene, add a sound effect from a free sound library in a simple editor and ask another group for one comment.
- Year 9
- Pupils record two rehearsals of a song, compare the recordings, and write down the changes they made in response to feedback and why.
Show the specification wording and the DCF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 19, Annexe C, Digital Links column, page 163; Levels of supervision and support, Level 2, page 93
“Audio/visual tools, online research”
Progression step 3
I can use a range of software to select, produce and edit a range of multimedia components for a purpose, such as:
- text and images, e.g. format text (bold, underline, italics, highlight); insert and edit text boxes; columns; use refine tools (spellchecker, find and replace); word wrap; crop; alter size and shape; alter images; add effects; trim and split sound and video clips; transitions; onion skin
- presentation, e.g. page orientation; animations; transitions; remove and alter images; use background; use action buttons to create hyperlink; embed objects.
I can invite feedback/responses from others, e.g. use 'comment' in online platforms, asking questions or adding suggestions.
Progression step 4
I can select and use a variety of appropriate software, tools and techniques to create, modify and combine multimedia components for a range of audiences and purposes, such as:
- text and images, e.g. explore and use effectively image manipulation techniques; explore and use appropriately the many aspects of document layout; use animation, video and audio effects such as echo, tempo, envelope, layering, frame rate, key frames
- presentation, e.g. use design tools; adapt themes and colours to suit the purpose; create master templates.
I can suggest and make improvements that are relevant for audience and purpose, based on feedback and self-evaluation of my digital work.
Good to know
- The unit is listed as "SfL 19 Music, dance, and drama" with a Unit GLH of 20 (Unit summary, page 5). It counts towards the Pearson Skills for Life qualifications, for example C00/5444/1 "Pearson Entry Level 3 Skills for Life Award" (Qualification titles, page 3).
- A unit counts only once: "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6, and Assessment of units, page 9), so schools should decide which level each learner is working towards.
- Learners do not have to perform on stage: they "will take part in either a performance or production role" (Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 2, page 93), so lighting, sound or stage management roles count.
- Evidence is flexible: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (page 92), but "achievement cannot be inferred from performance" (Section 4, page 9), so a performance must be captured, for example by video or an observation record.
- The required teaching content is in a separate document: it "can be found in the Teaching and Learning Support document for this unit" (Unit content, page 92). Annexe E says the content includes the "Eisteddfod, National Theatre Wales" and Welsh cultural heritage (page 173).
- AI must be acknowledged: "A learner will have committed malpractice if they use AI tools without acknowledging them" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, pages 93 to 94).
- Units and the qualifications are "graded Pass/Fail" (Unit and Qualification Grading, page 7), and learners "can be assessed in Welsh or English" (Language of assessment, page 8).
- The Entry 3 essential information appears to have words missing: "they may need some help or a team, demonstrating a range of appropriate performance skills" (page 92).
Links with other qualifications
Music, dance, and drama links directly to WJEC GCSE Music, GCSE Dance and GCSE Drama, to the WJEC VCSE in Performing Arts and to the WJEC Foundation in Expressive Arts; recording and editing performances also touches GCSE Digital Media and Film and the VCSE and Foundation in Creative and Media Production, and Technology. Within the WJEC Skills Suite it sits next to Art and Crafts, Digital Film and Media and Teamwork. Compared with the WJEC Music, dance and drama unit, which has four learning outcomes including exploring elements and styles and reflecting on and evaluating performances, the Pearson unit has one criterion per level centred on preparing for and carrying out a role in a production, and accepts a production role instead of performing. Neither version requires digital work.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma Qualifications specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 19: Music, dance, and drama.