Drama

Curriculum timetable: One 50 minute lesson a week

Curriculum overview:

KS3 information: The aim of the drama curriculum supports students in their performance ability in creating opportunities across the arts; to develop confidence in being able to communicate effectively within a group; as well as to encourage and develop students as individuals in utilising drama as a tool to develop students’ opinions, knowledge of current affairs and how they can use their voice to make a difference. As a subject can be split into three key areas- creating, performing and reflecting. At KS3 we aim to introduce and develop student abilities in these three areas not only with the intention to push for GCSE but also with the intention of developing student creativity, voice and interaction skills.

Y7: Creating Toolkit

During Y7 the aim is to get students excited about drama, being able to develop their own characters, narrative. They will then explore the history of theatre to see how it has progressed over time and how this has influenced theatre today. Finally, students will be given and opportunity to consider how they can use this information to create theatre using this knowledge and skill.

Y8: Performing Toolkit

In Y8 students are pushed to think in a more abstract and non-naturalistic way, pushing them to consider alternate styles of theatre such as physical theatre. This allows the students to think about the whole body within a performance in portraying character and circumstance. This knowledge is then applied to more complex themes, narratives and characters from both traditional as well as more modern texts. This year will allow students to have the opportunities to strengthen their communication skills, teamwork, confidence, as well as teaching the students how we are supposed to engage with one another within the theatre as well as outside. As they reach the end of the year, students should be able to effectively create and perform a variety of different styles of theatre with clear impact and focus.

Y9: Reflecting Toolkit

At this stage, we are beginning to prepare students for GCSE through introducing the students to key practitioners of theatre, not only to develop student ability to perform from a script but also within their devising work. Our aim is to push the students’ abilities in understanding, applying and at this point being able to effectively reflect upon their own process and development. Allowing students to become more responsible for their own learning as well as areas they wish to explore. Students will be introduced to a variety of texts and stimuli to explore and effectively consider the whole process of making theatre: creating, performing and reflecting.

GCSE information:

KS4

The current exam board is OCR  which we find is tailored to the needs of our students. Across KS4 students will cover 3 components:

• C1: Devised Performance and coursework reflection (Y10)
• C2: Texted Performance (Y11)
• C3: Written exam split into Section A (GCSE Set text) and Section B (Live theatre evaluation) (Y10 and recap Y11)

The curriculum is developed in a way that students cover the knowledge/skills in at least three ways: first to introduce, then to embed and lastly to apply the knowledge. This is to not only ensure the knowledge has been full absorbed but also to allow students to develop their creating, performance and reflection skills across all year groups.

For further information please follow the link attached GCSE - Drama (9-1) - J316 - OCR

Knowledge in Drama:

Across both KS3 and KS4 students are exposed to a variety of bother styles and practitioners of theatre to be able to create, perform and reflect upon their work. This covers the following…

• Key theatre practitioners: Stanislavski, Brecht, Frantic Assembly, Artaud and some Berkoff
• Breaking down how to put on a performance and the different theatre makers involved including director, actor, costume, light, set and sound designers
• Students need to be able to analyse and evaluate their own work and comment on professional in a constructive and thoughtful way
• Students need to be able to understand how body language, use of voice and the way we interact with others impact our every day lives and the opportunities we may be introduced to
• Students should be able to make connections between key playwrights including Shakespeare with their English work

How to prepare for GCSE:

Students need to be able to create effective pieces of performance both from a stimulus and from a text with a clear understanding of the context implications, practitioner, character and playwright intentions. Students then need to be able to reflect, analyse and evaluate the process. Through C3 students will need to be able to comment on both how they would create, design and perform a piece of Theatre effectively as well as analysing and evaluating the effectiveness of professional theatre makers work.

A-level and Beyond:

Beyond Yewlands students have opportunities across all South Yorkshire to take part in creating and performing Theatre whether this be through A level or BTEC opportunities. The A level is considered very positively and students often go on to Universities to complete courses. If you wish to go more the education/creating theatre route University tends to be more effective. However, if it is more acting and performing side often students choose to go to Drama school which is privately funded.