Drama

HEAD OF EXPRESSIVE ARTS FACULTY: MRS L BURGESS

Mrs E Holder  Subject Leader for Performing Arts Teacher of Drama
Miss A McIntosh Teacher of Drama

DRAMA

Drama encourages the students to work in a collaborative and co-operative way.  It develops skills in communication, builds confidence and self-expression.  Some elements cover an understanding of how drama works, some design elements and theatre history.   The students learn through a variety styles, including role play, didactic styles and experiential learning.  Projects could involve working in whole class, individual and small groups.  Self evaluation and peer evaluation are encouraged as well as teacher assessment.   There is a requirement to perform at all levels and students will gain skills in acting, improvisation and evaluating performances.  Homework tasks could include reflection and evaluation of learning, a design task, learning lines, or making or finding suitable props and costumes.   There is a House competition for Drama and exam students are encouraged to invite parents and friends to showcase their performance work.  There is an annual school production in the autumn term which is open to all students, visits to professional productions are also encouraged.

Year 7 Course Overview

Autumn term: Introduction to Drama, building skills to develop concentration, co-operation and consideration.  This follows on to a role play project, based around horror.

Spring term: Introduction to script work. Greek Theatre will also be addressed with a focus on mask work.

Summer term: Whole class role play and small group improvisation chosen by the class teacher.  Assessment is based on group improvisation and acting skills. 

Year 8 Course Overview

Autumn term: Physical theatre and movement work.   Understanding the skills of expression and voice in performance. A thematic project based on magic in Shakespeare. 

Spring term: Theatre in Education pieces which will be shown to younger students and a look at some practitioners.  

Summer term:  A project based on Commedia Dell Arte. Assessment is a presentation of one play.

Drama GCSE Course Outline

Exam Board: OCR

Written    40%                            Practical     60%

Drama is designed to be a practical, engaging and creative way for students to study. It will provide opportunities to examine drama and the work of others, to explore a range of drama as a practical art form, and to work independently to create their own drama performances making informed artistic choices.

The course allows students to study drama in an academic setting, interrogating this art form and applying their knowledge and understanding to the process of creating and developing drama and to their own performance work.

Students will take part in 2 pieces of coursework which will require a performance and a written log of supporting notes, and one written exam based on practical exploration of 2 texts.

Nancy and Dodger

A Level Theatre Studies Outline

A Level Drama and Theatre studies takes a contemporary approach to studying the subject. It builds on the GCSE, giving students opportunities to develop key skills in performance of their chosen skill, in the creative and rehearsal process and in analysing and evaluating a range of theatrical texts.

Students can choose a route through the course and will be assessed as either a performer or as a designer in the non-exam components. The designer options of lighting; sound; set; costume have their own marking criteria and specification requirements, ensuring students are well supported in taking these options and are credited for the skills needed for their chosen discipline. Designers will create artefacts of their design ideas and demonstrate their skills in a live performance.

In both the AS and the A Level qualifications there is 60% non-exam assessment and 40% exam assessment. Both qualifications require students to study, explore and interpret performance texts to support their understanding and knowledge, and to aid them in demonstrating their analytical and evaluative skills.

During the AS, students will study three performance texts:

  • One full text (chosen by the teacher) for the ‘Process to performance’ component.
  • Two further extracts from texts, from a set list to fit a thematic title. These are explored practically throughout the course and students are assessed in the final exam assessment.

During the full A2 students will study five performance texts:

  • One full text (chosen by the teacher) for ‘Exploring and performing texts’ component.
  • A second full text (chosen from a selection of eight set texts) which is studied in depth during the course and tested during the ‘Deconstructing texts for performance’ exam assessment.
  • An extract from a text, chosen by the centre, to support student understanding for the ‘Practitioners in Practice’ devised performance.
  • Two further extracts from texts, from a set list to fit a thematic title. These are explored practically throughout the course and students are assessed in the exam assessment.