Drama
| Curriculum Lead: | Mrs N Smith-Hughes |
Whole School Vision
To encourage all students to be passionate and proactive in their learning and to support them in becoming responsible, confident and successful citizens of the future.
The drama department at Bishop Rawstorne is extremely successful with a clear focus on developing students who feel supported and encouraged to achieve their potential through an innovative, well sequenced creative curriculum and consistently high standards of teaching.
Curriculum Intent
Our Drama curriculum nurtures ingenuity, individuality and imagination; we strive to encourage pupils to develop their self-confidence and use this to think and express themselves with flair and conviction in a range of situations. Our high expectations of behaviour and achievement for all pupils, allows them to thrive over their time in drama, show tolerance and understanding to their peers and reach their full potential.
Drama is an important subject for all pupils as it improves self-confidence in readiness for expressing themselves and preparing them for other life situations such as interviews and presentations. It promotes a variety of life skills such as team work, analysis and development of ideas, research and listening skills when working in peer groups.
All Year 9 pupils are offered the performing experience. For some, this is a passion which they can only get in school. This ensures we give equal opportunities for all to thrive in Drama. We have many pupils who are so inspired that they want to pursue it as a career. Pupils are given opportunities through practical role-play and written drama activities to experience the world around them and begin to appreciate situations from more than one perspective. Through drama, we encourage students to question and challenge their perception of the world and develop the soft skills employers seek.
Drama is part of the KS2 and KS3 National Curriculum for English, our pupils come from primary school with varying experiences of performing, with some pupils having studied privately for several years. It states; all pupils should be enabled to participate in and gain knowledge, skills and understanding associated with the artistic practice of drama. Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre performances.
Other references in the curriculum document include:
- Role-play and other drama techniques can help pupils to identify with and explore characters. In these ways, they extend their understanding of what they read and have opportunities to try out the language they have listened to.
- Drama and role-play can contribute to the quality of pupils’ writing by providing opportunities for pupils to develop and order their ideas through playing roles and improvising scenes in various settings.
- Pupils should become more familiar with and confident in using language in a greater variety of situations, for a variety of audiences and purposes, including through drama, formal presentations and debate.
- Reading, re-reading, and rehearsing poems and plays for presentation and performance give pupils opportunities to discuss language, including vocabulary, extending their interest in the meaning and origin of words. Pupils should be encouraged to use drama approaches to understand how to perform plays and poems to support their understanding of the meaning. These activities also provide them with an incentive to find out what expression is required, so feeding into comprehension.
At KS4, Drama content and assessment is covered by the AQA exam board criteria building and extending the skills learnt above. Our curriculum is continually reviewed to cater for the changing needs of pupils to ensure progress is made by all.
At KS4 students, through a variety of improvised activities, are nurtured into a safe caring family drama group so all learners feel safe and part of the group. This is of vital importance if pupils are to develop their drama skills to the highest of their abilities. The development of much more detailed and thorough skills in dialogue development and emotional range in their acting, both in terms of vocal and physical skills are developed.
Students are provided with a wide range of creative, exciting and stimulating opportunities allowing them to explore their interests in drama in ways that are personally relevant and truly developmental in nature. Individual strengths are recognised and the enthusiasms and areas of expertise of our pupils explored within their project themes. Students practise the skills, disciplines and techniques they have learned and continue to learn in order to communicate ideas, feelings and meanings about drama.
KS4
At KS4, pupils successfully follow the AQA GCSE Drama syllabus where students complete three components:
- Understanding Drama - Assessed in a written exam in Year 11 (40%)
- Devising Drama - Assessed through a devising log and performance (40%)
- Texts in Practice - Assessed in performance by a visiting examiner in Year 11(20%)
Year 9
Students are introduced to the three components of the GCSE course through a range of practical and written tasks. Students are taught explicitly how to approach each component of the examination and practical examination tasks. By the end of the year, Year 9 are well-equipped to pursue the Year 10 course and apply their targets for improvement. Year 9 students participate in the National Shakespeare English Speaking Union Competition performing an extract from a Shakespeare play, locally and nationally to compete for the chance to perform at The Globe theatre in London. This supports their confidence, acting in role, speaking in verse, literacy and oracy skills in Drama. They work in groups to develop a devised thematic performance using Frantic Assembly to develop a piece about relationships. This is given written and oral feedback regularly by the teacher to offer solutions to improve the work. All Year 9 students are taught the design and acting fundamentals and regular assessment allows to check their knowledge and understanding of the work.
At the end of Year 9, students are put into their devising groups to develop their initial ideas for the final Year 10 Devised thematic performance and technical controlled assessment in March of Year 10.
Year 10
Pupils are introduced to Component 2, the devised work element of the examination. Researching and devising drama based upon themes such as Hillsborough disaster, Grenfell Tower, The Triumph of Fortitude, Dante’s Dream, Climate Change and social media. Pupils are guided through teacher led workshops and given opportunities in small groups to develop and experiment with their drama ideas using a wide range of skills taught in KS3 including, monologue, dialogue movement, physical theatre, set. props.
Performance skills are developed with these devised pieces being performed at Open evening and to visiting associate teachers and other GCSE classes.
The use of physical theatre is explored in more detail, in the style of Frantic Assembly, Punch Dunk Theatre Company, and Paper Birds. This also leads to pupils leaning how to sequence work and use the set in a much more skilful and creative manner. We study Brecht and Stanislavski.
Pupils are introduced to Component 1, Act 1 of the set text “Blood Brothers” in a practical way.
Teacher led analysis of each page of the script is supported by pupils acting out each section and analysing their own and peer work. The group are introduced to how to direct a piece of script and given the opportunity to do so using different small sections of the text. This helps them verbalise what they are doing in preparation for this written section of the exam.
During Term 2b and term 3 pupils work through their final Component 2 of GCSE Drama Exam.
Year 11
Pupils further study Component 2, the set text “Blood Brothers” in a practical and written way. Teacher led analysis of each page of the script is supported by pupils acting out each section and analysing their own and peer work. The group are introduced to how to direct a piece of script and given the opportunity to do so using different small sections of the text. This helps them verbalise what they are doing in preparation for this written section of the exam.
During the first and second term pupils follow component 3 - texts in practice (practical). Pupils work in their own groups on their 1st and 2nd sections of their individual scripts. Rehearsal techniques and acting skills are continually refined. Pupils receive regular practical feedback on their performances before the final examination in front of an AQA external examiner.
In Term 3, pupils revisit in detail, Component 1, how to answer the 3 sections of the written
examination. All lessons contain some practical element with pupils acting and verbally analysing their acting before trying written questions much interaction tales place to ensure all learners know what they are doing.
Across all classes, pupils are encouraged to be able to communicate their understanding and opinions of themes, contextual studies and drama performances.
Oracy and literacy are there to support the practical activities that take place within drama lessons and therefore should be integral to pupils’ work. Pupils are given opportunities to read information relating to tasks and are encouraged to verbalise their answers to specific drama questions, particularly related to the written paper at GCSE. Spaced retrieval activities as starter activities are used weekly to recap and revisit previous learning for terminology and to support the development of knowledge for the Component 1, Written Examination.
Subject specific vocabulary is introduced as project work progresses with word banks and exemplar material provided for those pupils less confident about written work.
Weekly intervention is offered to all students to support their academic studies for GCSE Drama.
Programmes of Study: Drama
Curriculum Implementation
KS3 Drama
Taught as part of English lessons across the two-year KS3 programme of study.
- Role-play and other drama techniques
- Drama and role-play can contribute to the quality of pupils’ writing by providing opportunities for pupils to develop and order their ideas through playing roles and improvising scenes in various settings.
- For a variety of audiences and purposes, including through drama, formal presentations and debate.
- Reading, re-reading, and rehearsing poems and plays for presentation and performance give pupils opportunities to discuss language, including technical vocabulary, extending their interest in the meaning and origin of words. Pupils are encouraged to use drama approaches to understand how to perform plays and poems to support their understanding. These activities also provide them with an incentive to find out what expression is required, so supporting comprehension skills.
KS4 Drama
GCSE drama consists of one theory and one practical session per week where students fully prepare for the assessments for GCSE.
- Component 1 – Written Exam (1 hours and 45 minutes)
- Component 2 – Devised Thematic Performance and Devising Log
- Component 3 – Scripted Practical Performance.
Students prepare for the components through a range of practical and theoretical lessons incorporating the key skills in drama such as improvisation, stylised and abstract, mime and slow motion and other physical and vocal skills.
Curriculum Impact
KS3 Drama
Students develop their oracy and spoken language skills to make them able to deliver lively presentation and transferable skills for life. They are assessed on these skills through formative, summative and teacher led assessments throughout the two-year course.
KS4 Drama
Assessment of progress is via regular checking of students’ books, verbal feedback, live marking and discussions as well as several more formally set and assessed tasks throughout the year. Each student will be provided with targets for development. Assessment folders and assessment cover sheets are used for self, peer and teacher assessment and allow for accurate target setting and monitoring of progress. Emphasis is placed on feedback and targets for progression, rather than grades or numbers.
Throughout Key Stage 4, students are also regularly assessed in accordance with the various components of the GCSE drama course. They follow the AQA syllabus in drama.
In drama, students are also assessed by linear examinations for Component 1 (study of a set text, live theatre and drama terminology). Throughout the GCSE course, progress will be monitored by continual assessment and students will have the opportunity to develop their acting skills by studying practitioners such as Stanislavski and Brecht, Artaud, Frantic Assembly to help to shape exciting pieces of performance for their final assessments in Year 11.
Careers and Progression
Careers for students studying GCSE drama can include:
- Drama Therapist
- Playwright
- Live Event Production
- Performer/Actor
- Drama Teacher
- Producer
- Artist Manager
- Tour Manager
- Booking Agent
- Drama Publicist
- Public speaker
- Politics
- Lawyer
- Therapist
- Journalist
