Drama

Our vision:

The Drama department aims to provide a stimulating and rewarding experience for all and help pupils become well-rounded learners through practical and theory work. The skills used within Drama are integral to all other areas of life; whether it is reading plays, group work, presenting to an audience or managing emotions, the subject can support other areas of school – and life. In Drama, students have the opportunity to work with their peers to support team-building skills, as well as empathy, listening to others and emotional intelligence. These are not only essential for adulthood and the work place, but they also help with enriching a young person’s experience both in and outside of school. Additionally, we support their English skills and knowledge through the study of plays, PSHE themes through topic exploration and discussions, as well as making students understand how the skills used in lessons are integral for the working world. At the very core of our department is our widely experienced staff (including ex-professional performers) who between them have a wealth of knowledge and interests, allowing for a diverse curriculum. Pupils will have the opportunity to explore a variety of stimuli (for example; art, photos, newspaper articles) as well as take part in debates and discussions around PSHE themes (for example, alcohol misuse). They engage in a wide variety of problem-solving activities and wherever possible, we look for the leaders of the work to highlight to them the importance of leadership skills in adulthood. We also encourage pupils to reflect on their learning through feedback and dialogue in their books and discussions to develop critical and reflective thinkers to help prepare them for the next stage of their lives.

We see our key objectives as:

Providing students with essential life-skills (for example, working as a team, listening to others) to build confidence.
Providing students with key industry skills they will need for the working world (for example, presenting/public speaking).
Providing students with opportunities to explore challenging themes (for example, mental health) through the use of Drama to support with emotional well-being, self-esteem and self-awareness.

As a department, we believe that Drama is important to a student’s programme of study for a number of reasons:

Drama teaches students to use invaluable life skills.
It allows us to understand and explore key PSHE themes through the medium of Drama.
Drama can enrich a student’s experience both in the classroom and in other areas of life.

There are ‘golden threads’, which run through our curriculum in Drama:

Devising

Devising allows the students to ‘create’ and use their own imagination, research and artistic skills to develop something original. They will focus on a range of theatre practitioners and devising techniques (such as TIE) to direct their own work. This area of the curriculum is the creative challenge.

Performance

Performance skills such as use of body language, facial expression, movement on stage and use of voice. This is broken down into more specific techniques for the different styles and genres across the five years. This is the area of the curriculum is the physical challenge.

Appreciation

Appreciation allows students to be inspired by works both old and new from a variety of different cultures and genres. They will also understand technical theatre such as staging, lighting and set design alongside being able to reflect and evaluate both their own and others performances. This area of the curriculum is the mental challenge.

These golden threads re not only important for a student’s understanding in Drama but they are relevant for KS3/4/5 and beyond into the theatre industry. They underpin everything we do in lessons and allow us to be flexible when it comes to our approach.

5 Year Curriculum

The drama journey as this school spans over five years. In year 7 they start with creating drama from a different stimulus every lesson. This allows then to be creative but still stay within the realms of their comfort zone as the style and genre is not necessarily dictated to them. They then go on after the ‘ice breaker’ first half term to look at key moments of drama through the ages. Such as Melodrama to tie in with the Christmas pantomime season. Greek theatre and Elizabethan theatre. Within the Elizabethan theatre unit they look at their first Shakespeare sonnet, meaning they are introduced to Shakespeare in drama before English, the way that Shakespeare was always intended to be read. They then look at a play in depth for the last term of year seven, giving them greater character analysis and allowing them to explore ‘off text’ work. In year 8 they start to look at different genres and styles such as Gothic Literature and explore more texts in detail and I year 9 they look at a variety of stimuli linked to mental health and diversity to create theatre in education pieces. If they then opt for GCSE Drama the golden threads will continue as they create their own devised work and portfolio of research, perform a professional script and study for a theory exam looking into technical theatre and a set text.