Drama
Intent
Drama is a largely practical and completely inclusive subject. By focusing on three main areas: creating, performing and responding, students learn to problem-solve, adapt and develop skills and ideas and make sense of the world around them by ‘living through imagined experience’ (Neelands, 1998). To create an atmosphere where students wish to learn, so that they come to enjoy Drama. This will enable each student to achieve his/her potential in a variety of situations, using all available resources appropriately, to ensure the highest level of achievement for each student.
Implementation
The Drama curriculum in both key stages is designed to ensure that all key skills relating to all areas of the subject (performance, technical and design) are covered in every unit and opportunities to revisit key skills are built into students’ learning journeys across the 5 years.
The usual allocation of lessons is as follows:
- Years 7 – 9: 1 lesson per week
- Year 10 and 11: 5 lessons over a 2 week period
During KS4, students follow the Eduqas GCSE course:
The WJEC Eduqas GCSE Drama specification is designed to give learners a broad and balanced experience of drama. Across the three components learners will study:
- one complete performance text
- two extracts from a second contrasting performance text placed within the context of the whole text
- either the techniques of an influential theatre practitioner or the characteristics of a genre of drama.
Learners will have the opportunity to work practically as designers and/or performers on:
- one devised performance using the techniques or characteristics of their chosen theatre practitioner or genre
- one performance based on the second contrasting performance text using sections of text from the two extracts
The power of Drama is when the aesthetic is brought into play. The living through of the Drama during the role-play and the reflection afterwards gives the students the opportunity to consider their own and others’ attitudes in a controlled environment. Drama can contribute to students becoming responsible members of the school. The subject enhances their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and makes a significant contribution to students as speakers and listeners. The many roles Drama takes on can do much to enhance the prestige of the school.
Impact
Student progress is monitored through both formative and summative assessments. Formal summative assessments in at least one of the key skill areas (performance, design or technical) are carried out during each unit of work at Key Stage 3. While in Year 10, students are assessed using GCSE style questions on the text / topic being covered in each unit at the beginning of the course and throughout into Year 11 to ensure that they are well prepared for the written element of this course as well as the practical.
Assessment for Learning techniques are a regular feature of Drama lessons. The department adopts the All-Some-Few approach of delivering objectives and linking them to levels in a way in which students can comprehend what they have to achieve in the lesson to reach a certain level. During the response element of lessons, a variety of techniques are used to ensure feedback comes from a variety of students; these include hand-scoring, whiteboards, post-it notes, think-pair-share, 2 stars and a wish etc. All responses lead back to the All-Some-Few objects and students need to justify why they would give a certain performance a certain level using this criteria.
Suggested post-16 pathways and possible careers
Students can continue to study Drama at A Level, BTEC and T Level. Runshaw offers A Level Drama and Theatre Studies and Level 3 Professional Performance: Acting. Whilst Maghull High 6th Form offers A Level Drama and BTEC Performing Arts. A Level Drama is also offered at KGV College. Studying Drama at A Level could also be beneficial when applying for a range of other courses at university. Although we could argue that the associated skills with Drama including increased confidence, self-esteem, collaborative and communication skills are a requirement for any role in the future, there are several subject-specific roles available in the creative industries, as follows, and this list is growing every year:
- Actor
- Broadcaster/Presenter
- Community Arts Worker
- Drama Therapist
- Runner – theatre/broadcasting/film/video
- Director
- Stage/Production manager
- Arts Management/Administration
- Choreographer
- Further Education Teacher
- Secondary School Teacher
- Talent Agent
- Television Floor Manager
- Theatre Manager
- Media Researcher
Additional information
Extra-curricular opportunities include but are not limited to:
- Weekly ‘Rising Stars’ Drama Club for KS3 students
- Senior Production in the Autumn Term
- Junior Production in the Summer Term
- GCSE Showcase Events
- Theatre Trips for all year groups