Trinity College London Young Performers Certificates are designed to develop confidence, group interaction skills and a sense of achievement in children up to the age of seven.
They encourage young children to develop performance, musical and communication skills as they create and explore stories, songs, roles and situations through the imaginative and integrated use of movement, music, voice and artwork.
Groups of six to twelve children may enter for these awards presenting their work to a Trinity examiner at their school or teaching centre.
The Young Performers Certificates are awards, not examinations. The intention is to promote good classroom practice through co-operation and creativity, developing an appropriate child centred introduction to performance.
To encourage participation and provide a sense of progression the Certificates are available at three levels - Bronze, Silver and Gold.
Bronze Certificate
The Bronze Certificate allows young children to take their first steps in exploring performance,
musical and communication skills in a familiar and supportive atmosphere. The work presented should emerge out of child-centred play or group activities and have a form and structure
with which the children are familiar. It can be based on an original story devised by the group.
While there is no need for a complex plot, there should be some basic narrative to focus and progress the piece.
- Group-based presentation (6–12 children)
- 5–8 minute performance
- Integration of at least two skills (performance, musical or communication skills)
- Teacher-led
Silver Certificate
The Silver Certificate allows children to continue to develop their performance skills in a mutually supportive atmosphere, while allowing individuals to make their own contributions to the group presentation. As with the Bronze Certificate, group dynamic is important, but the emphasis shifts to encouraging individual as well as group responsibility. Children may now make their own individual, pair or small group contributions to the performance as a whole. This might be through movement, performing a role in the story, singing a song or playing a musical instrument. The performance will normally include a range of characters, moods and situations which encourage a variety of individual and group responses. The narrative structure should be clear and move towards an appropriate ending.
- Group-based presentation (6–12 children) with individual/pair/small group contributions
- 8–12 minute performance
- Integration of two or three skills (performance, musical or communication skills)
- Teacher-supported
Gold Certificate
The highest level of the Young Performers Certificates, Gold Certificate, aims to sufficiently develop performance skills to provide children with a sound foundation for
Initial level graded exams in speech and drama, acting, musical theatre or music. The work presented should be clearly structured, contain identifiable characters, and demonstrate contrasting moods and dynamics within an imagined storyline or situation. All group members should be given the opportunity to display some independence and confidence through individual, pair or small group contributions.
- Group-based presentation (6–12 children) with
individual/pair/small group contributions - 10–15 minute performance
- Integration of at least three skills (performance,
musical or communication skills) - Teacher may discreetly direct the performance
Syllabus booklet
An illustrated Young Performers Certificates syllabus booklet giving full details of performance requirements at each level can be downloaded here.
