Drama

Course Description, Rationale and Objectives

All students receive Drama education at KS3 and it is considered a vital part of the curriculum.

Drama remains one of the most popular and important forms of entertainment, whether we are watching it on television, the internet, at a cinema or at the theatre.  The drama curriculum aims to educate students about how drama is structured, created and performed.  Students work as active participants and audience members to explore what makes high quality drama.

Drama also forms an important part of the literary and cultural cannon.

Our curriculum follows four key strands, which are based on the assessment objectives of GCSE Drama:

1. Create and develop ideas to communicate meaning to an audience;
2. Apply theatre skills;
3. Show knowledge and understanding of how drama is developed and performed;
4. Analyse and evaluate drama.

Additionally, through Drama, students gain confidence and communication skills needed for both creative performance and interaction in all other areas of school life. We aim for students to:

• Understand and demonstrate the basic and social skills necessary for meaningful Drama to take place, such as listening, observation, concentration and co-operation.
• Work in mixed groups of varying sizes, developing the ability to negotiate and make decisions as part of a group.
• Understand how to use the performance space through movement and voice when communicating meaning of narratives.
• Show a developing ability to devise, improvise and create believable characterisations.
• Learn how to adapt body language and voicings to suit characters unlike themselves.
• Understand that the process of Drama has its own worth and that performance is not always part of the activity it can contribute to students learning across the curriculum.
• Reflect upon and respond constructively to their own work and that of others in class, with an awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Develop a variety of physical conceptual skills in relationship to the practice of Drama.

Drama also functions as an important learning tool: for example in the development of students’ oral literacy, speaking and listening and communication skills, and as a method of exploring themes and issues across the curriculum.

Our expectations

Students are required to work independently and collaboratively with peers to complete practical tasks in lessons. They regularly evaluate the work of others in class to help improve understanding, and are formally assessed once a term.  Students are expected to be reflective and supportive learners, in order to improve their own performing and that of others that they work with.  Students at GCSE are expected to spend time outside of lessons practising their performances.

Course Structure

The current GCSE has the following structure:

• Component 1              Devising Drama From a Stimulus
• Component 2              Performing Drama From a Text
• Component 3              Understanding Drama
  • Section A – Study of a Drama Text
  • Section B – Evaluation of Live Performance

Each of the schemes of work at Key Stage Three is linked to one of these components, either in developing the key skills required or as a practice version of the component.  Each component will be assessed at Key Stage Three.

GCSE Course

We currently offer GCSE Drama using the Eduqas specification, details of which can be found at https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/drama-gcse/#tab_overview