The Key Stage 3 curriculum lasts for three years and covers all aspects of the theatre industry. Our aim is to cover a broad range of knowledge and skills to develop young people’s creativity and theatre abilities via a wide variety of activities and theatre practitioners. Through evaluation of theatre and performance, pupils develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life, humanity and the wider world. Students learn to use techniques and structures such as monologues/ duologues, and both scripted and devised work. The units undertaken at KS3 are specifically designed to foster and develop a love for the subject and create subject expertise whilst supporting progression onto KS4 and beyond. We create opportunities for pupils to learn the key knowledge, academic vocabulary and theatrical terms, and skills needed and we regularly revisit topics deliberately and systematically in our long term planning to develop long term memory.
The Drama GCSE curriculum is designed to build on the key knowledge within the KS3 curriculum and reflect the culture within the ever demanding and changing theatre industry. Our carefully planned curriculum nurtures key knowledge and skills via both practical and theoretical experiences within theatre performance and appreciation. This allows students to respond to contexts, resources and stimuli and develop their own original creative responses by knowing which skills to use to apply independently to achieve success. We encourage students to take a critical approach to their understanding of methods, practitioners, live theatre and outcomes of their own work and that of others. Complex scripts are used to develop characters, whilst also experimenting with set and costume to complement experimental theatre.
The department follows the Edexcel (Pearson) qualification ; BTEC Level 3 Performing Arts. The students will have the opportunity to study at length all three disciplines of Musical Theatre (Movement, Singing and Acting) within this, the students will study practitioners relevant to the theatre genre and will perform in short scale performances to represent the work learnt. Students will study scripted texts, musical theatre scores and will participate in workshops depicting all three disciplines. Students will also review and evaluate their own work, set achievable targets and critica live theatre.
See the curriculum map for a full breakdown of what is taught from Y7-13
We assess by a variety of means, primarily through instant verbal assessment and feedback carried out through practical demonstrations. Students are assessed on performance, rehearsal and analysis skills. This is ongoing through practical explorative tasks, discussion, rehearsing for a performance, and appraising and evaluating. The practical assessment reinforces and therefore consolidates the skills developed throughout the unit where the outcome is assessing knowledge and understanding of key vocabulary and academic language. Students are also assessed on the ideas that they contribute to the process of devising theatre and perform extracts of professional repertoire that can be a combination of group work, duologues and monologues. In addition, students explore, research and analyse live theatre and the roles and responsibilities of the practitioners involved in creating that theatre. Students are given the opportunity to see a piece of live professional theatre, to prepare them for this and will be encouraged to see many examples of live theatre throughout the course to inspire and challenge them further.