Drama is a popular and exiting subject within the school offering many opportunities for the students to develop a love of learning within Drama. We believe that Drama has a valuable place within the curriculum and promotes a safe and inclusive environment which is perfectly situated to grow and develop the pupils sense of self-confidence, independence and worth, whilst allowing them to become the people they want to be.
The Drama department is a fantastic teaching resource, situated in a fully functioning studio with sound and lighting capabilities, tiered seating and a large range of Props and Costumes used by the students on a regular basis throughout their lessons.
Students receive one lesson of Drama per week in KS3. We offer a broad and exciting curriculum with many opportunities to develop the students’ performance skills. The students learn a new topic and set of skills every six weeks with a summative assessment at the end of each half term. Students are introduced to various aspects of Drama such as Mask and Mime, Physical theatre, and Comedy. See curriculum plan for details
Key Stage Four
We study the OCR specification, which allows the students to explore a wide range of theatre. The course is broken down into three components:
Component one: Devising Drama 30%
Throughout this component the Students will research and explore a stimulus, work collaboratively and create their own devised Drama. This component is a non-exam assessment and is assessed on the students’ final performance and their Devising portfolio.
Component two: Presenting and Performing Texts 30%
The students develop and apply theatrical skills in acting or design by presenting a showcase of two extracts from a performance text. Component two is a non-exam assessment and is assessed by an external examiner within the centre.
Component Three: Performance and Response 40%
This component is broken down into two parts.
Part A – The students will explore practically a performance text to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of Drama.
Part B- The students will analyse and evaluate a live theatre performance
Component three is an exam assessment. The students will sit an exam of 90 minutes where they will be assessed on the requirements of both part A and Part B.
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KS3 & 4 Curriculum Map Drama
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Year
Autumn Term
Spring Term
Summer Term
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KS3
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
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7 (KS3)
Basic Drama Skills
+
Tableaux
Spontaneous Improvisation
+
Devised Improvisation
Status
Hermon + Creon
Ensemble Theatre
Greek Tragedy
Mime
Mask
8 (KS3)
Mood and Atmosphere
(Shakespeare)
Whole Group Drama
(Going Nowhere)
Working from a Text
(Game of soldiers)
Physical Comedy
(Commedia Dell’ Arte)
Physical Theatre
Process Drama
(Where’s Tracy)
Carousel Lessons
Puppetry
9 (KS3)
Structuring Drama
(Flat share)
Mood and Atmosphere
(Stage Fighting)
Devising
Devising
Exploring Text
Interpretation and Context
(Arbeit Macht Frei)
Exploring Text
Language and performance Depth
(Blood Brothers)
KS4
Sep-Oct
Nov-Dec
Jan-Feb
March-April
May-June
June-July
10 (KS4)
Non-Naturalism
(Teenagers)
Naturalism and detailed Skill Development
(Last Hurdle)
Introduction to Devising and Assessment 1
Assessment 1
Devising Drama 30%
(OCR Stimuli)
Assessment 1
Devising Drama 30%
(OCR Stimuli)
Introduction to Assessment 3
Performance and Response
11 (KS4)
Assessment 3
Performance and Response 40%
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(Blood Brothers)
Assessment 2
Presenting and Performing Texts 30%
(Hansel and Gretel)
Assessment 2
Presenting and Performing Texts 30%
(Hansel and Gretel)
Assessment 3
Performance and Response 40%
(live theatre + Exam)
Assessment 3
Performance and Response 40%
(live theatre + Exam)
Study leave / Exam Prep
Extra Curricular Opportunities
The Drama department offers many enrichment opportunities for the students to get involved in Drama outside of the classroom. We believe this is an opportunity to consolidate, enrich and extend the learning opportunities beyond the usual lesson time. The students can get involved with KS3 Drama club and throughout the year can participate in street theatre, circus skills and may other activities. We encourage students across Key stages to take a mature and responsible attitude towards their learning offering extra lunchtime and after school rehearsals allowing them to make more rapid progress.
We regularly offer theatre trips to watch professional productions to encourage the students to widen their experience of theatre. In the past we have been to see ‘The woman in black’ at the West End, ‘Burnout’ by Frantic Assembly and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by the English National Ballet. Every year we invite theatre companies and professionals to deliver workshops at our school to enhance students learning of specific topics.  These companies have included ‘The Paper Birds’, ‘The English National Ballet’ and ‘Stage Combat/Special FX blood’ delivered by Squire Theatre.
On top of all of this we have an annual school musical production alongside the Music department, which is open to everyone to join in and have a go. Rehearsals begin the summer term with the final production lasting four nights in the final week of school in July. We are very fortunate that every year we have a sell out audience for every night as the shows are very popular amongst our community. Past performances have included ‘We will rock you’, ‘High school musical’ and ‘Oliver’ and most recently Grease
Subject Overview
Subject Overview