Welcome to the Drama Department.
The drama department is run by a dedicated group of staff who are passionate about the arts. We aim to inspire and harvest a love for drama amongst all our students.
We believe a drama learner has a set of qualities which we help to develop and nurture through our lessons:
Those students who show a particular ability or love for drama may take the subject for GCSE where we specialise in both performance and technical design: lighting, costume, and sound.
Drama lessons run twice a fortnight in year 7 and if students opt to take the subject at GCSE level, the number of lessons increases to six per fortnight.
In a role on the wall in drama, the words on the inside of the body and the outside tell us things about the character.
For our drama learner, the inside shows the SKILLS AND QUALITIES which we believe every learner has.
The outside shows the ACTIONS we expect students to use in lessons
Each term we study a different topic and skill area (taken from the GCSE assessment objectives) which increase in difficulty each year.
Year Group | Term 1 | Term 2 | Term 3 |
Year 7 | Friendships
Devising | The Terrible Fate of Humpty Dumpty
Theatre Makers in Practice | Introduction to Acting
Performance from Text |
Year 8 | The Woman in Black
Theatre Makers in Practice | Making a Positive Change – Theatre in Education
Devising | Developing a monologue/duologue
Performance from Text |
Year 9 | Crime and Punishment
Devising | Noughts and Crosses
Theatre Makers in Practice
| Contemporary Performance
Performance from Text |
KS4
GCSE Drama offers pupils the opportunity to develop as creative, effective, independent and reflective learners. It encourages pupils to apply knowledge and understanding when making, performing and responding to drama. Throughout the two year course, pupils will explore performance texts focusing upon their social, cultural and historical context. In GCSE Drama pupils develop a range of theatrical skills and apply these to create performances. The GCSE Drama course is in three parts:
Component 1: Devising (40%)
Create and develop a devised piece from stimulus.
Assessment:
Component 2: Performance from Text (20%)
Pupils will either perform in and /or design for two key extracts from a performance text.
Assessment:
Component 3: Theatre Makers in Practice (40%)
Practical exploration and study of one complete performance text.
Live theatre evaluation.
Assessment:
How we assess
In KS3 we assess through the following four areas, which stem from the Edexcel GCSE Assessment Objectives:
In KS4 we assess based on a combination of practice performances, mock examinations, marked responses and in-class assessment.
Subject specific websites to support independent learning and revision
BBC Bitesize Drama
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zbckjxs
Oak Academy KS3 Drama
https://classroom.thenational.academy/subjects-by-key-stage/key-stage-3
Frantic Digital (KS4 Drama)
Trips & Visits
Year 7 Theatre Trip
GCSE London Theatre Trip
Opportunities for visiting practitioners and workshops
Knowledge Organisers