‘A drama education which begins with a play, may eventually include all the elements of theatre. Like all the arts, drama helps us make sense of the world’
Drama is an art, a practical activity and an intellectual discipline. The breadth and balance of the drama curriculum will ensure that students are taught how to create, perform and respond to drama by working with a variety of stimuli and learning a selection of skills and knowledge of many theatrical genres.
In KS3, we offer Drama as part of the Performing Arts carousel. This ensures that all students receive regular, focussed learning of drama over an 8 lesson period, before moving on to the next discipline. Schemes of work include storytelling, physical theatre and the Japanese Art of Kabuki theatre. There is always emphasis on developing specific performance skills such as: Voice projection, stage proxemics and the successful use of body language and facial expressions.
We begin in Year 7 by offering schemes of work that cover the basic skills of performing, this is then built upon as the students experience of Performing Arts develops, ensuring that students are always challenged through the enjoyment of their learning.
The schemes of work run for four weeks and cover 8 Performing Arts lessons over the two week timetable. At the end of the four weeks students perform their work to the other classes on the same rotation block thus enhancing their performance skills further.
The Key Stage 3 curriculum provides students with a sound understanding of theatre in preparation for the BTEC in Performing Arts course that is run in Key Stage 4. This is a much more intense programme of study with students having a specific focus of developing their acting skills, performing plays (both Shakespearian and contemporary) and a variety of dance and music styles.
We aim to provide students with a course that gives them an understanding and practical experience of all three Performing Arts disciplines. We assess several times throughout the course, predominantly on a practical basis to a live audience. The course culminates in year 11, with the Production Project Unit. This Unit allows students to demonstrate all the skills they have developed throughout the course.
Students gain the equivalent of either 2 or 4 GCSE grades C and above, depending on if they are entered for the First Diploma or the Certificate in Performing Arts.
In Key Stage 5, we offer the AS and A2 Drama and Theatre Studies course which is run by EDEXCEL. Students follow the specification set by the exam board completing 2 Units in AS and a further 2 Units at A2 level.
AS Units
Unit 1: Exploration of Drama and Theatre
Unit 2: Theatre Text in Performance
A2 Units
Unit 3: Exploration of Dramatic Performance
Unit 4: Theatre Text in Context
