Drama and Theatre Studies Curriculum – Intent, Implementation and Impact
Intent
We aim to give our pupils a rich and broad experience of Drama and Theatre which incorporates a consideration of our cultural capital through our playwrights and practitioners. We enable our pupils and students to develop their skills of collaborative creation, performance and informed evaluation. As part of a Christian community, we ensure that our lessons reflect the values and teachings of our Church and enable our students to grow into compassionate and kind adults.
Our curriculum explores the history of theatre, from Greek theatre through to the most modern practitioners such as Frantic Assembly and the Kneehigh Theatre Company. We explore a range of genres practically and theoretically.
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum builds the skills of responding, making, performing and evaluation – each of these areas developed through the exploration of a range of texts and stimuli, including Puppetry, Commedia dell’Arte, the Holocaust, Shakespeare and Script Writing. As part of our commitment to our Christian faith, pupils learn about the Mystery Plays, exploring stories from the Bible such as Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, the Crucifixion and Resurrection. In addition, pupils learn the 6 ‘Cs’ of Drama: Communication, Courage, Consideration, Commitment, Co-operation and Concentration – these transferable skills are the foundation to success in Drama and Theatre, that will also support them after they have finished school.
At GCSE, our skills’ journey is consolidated and shaped to the requirements of the specification, where we apply the skills of devising (making) in groups, responding to increasingly complex texts and stimuli and performance to an audience and examiner. Evaluative skills developed at KS3 are formalised into the written form where students are taught a ‘What? How? Why?’ format to structure their responses in readiness for their written exam.
At A Level, the journey of skills is deepened and becomes increasingly more theoretical with a complex and reflective study of practitioners such as Artaud, Brecht and Stanislavski, along with their textual correlations. The development of theatre through time is a key area for study, studying how humanity has articulated and dramatized shared experience from the oral tradition and how this can be re-shaped for a modern audience.
Implementation
As subject specialists, enthusiasts and lifelong learners, our department discusses developments in theory and practice; we are members of National Drama, the UK’s leading professional subject association for Drama teachers, frequently participating in training sessions and workshops. We often attend subject specific conferences and take part in specification specific online fora where we share ideas with colleagues from across the country in order to develop our own curriculum. We take time to plan and reflect, formalising our findings into an organic provision for our students.
Our schemes of work implement the range of skills which allow our students to become confident practitioners. We regularly visit live theatre in order to reflect on text in practice and the process of page to stage, enabling our students’ skills to develop across each key stage.
Our extra-curricular provision allows our students to experience live performance and what it means to work as part of a cast or production team. We continue our school tradition of staging annually a theatre production, which allows our most advanced students from all years to hone their performance skills in detail and depth.
Impact
Pupils and students report a high level of enjoyment on Drama and can reflect clearly on the skills they are able to take with them into their next level of education or employment. They become confident, articulate and can think creatively, a key skill in our changing world.
Many of our students go on to work in the industry, recent alumni earning lead roles at the National Theatre, in TV roles and jobs behind the scenes.
DRAMA
Keystage 3
Year 7
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Introduction to Drama
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Puppetry
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Storytelling
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Greek theatre
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Shakespeare
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Mime
Year 8
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Drama Skills
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Pantomime
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Slapstick
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Peer Pressure
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Mystery Plays
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Script writing
Year 9
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Commedia dell’Arte
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Secret Annexe
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Script work – ‘Blood Brothers’ extracts.
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Live Theatre evaluation
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Understanding & Application: Theatre terminology
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Introduction to GCSE Drama (Option students only)
Pearson Drama GCSE
Devising (40%)
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Devising an original piece of theatre from a stimulus text.
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Tracking the progress of the piece in a portfolio (3000 words) – 30%
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Performance in a group performance – 10%
Performance (20%)
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A group performance, duologue or monologue from a script with a visiting examiner and an audience. – 20%
Written Exam (40%)
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A written exam – 1 hour and 45 minutes
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Section A – Page to Stage – ‘An Inspector Calls’
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Section B – Live Theatre Evaluation
Pearson Theatre Studies A Level
Devising (40%)
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Devising an original piece of theatre from a stimulus text.
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Tracking the progress of the piece in a portfolio (3500 words) – 30%
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Performance in a group performance, duologue or monologue – 10%
Performance (20%)
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A group performance, duologue, or monologue from a script with a visiting examiner and an audience – 20%
Written Exam (40%)
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A written exam – 2 hours and 30 minutes
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Section A: Live Theatre Evaluation – one question based on experience of a live theatre performance, as a knowledgeable student of theatre skills.
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Section B: Page to Stage: Realising A Performance Text – two questions which address how a student would be using performer, director and designer skills to put on a performance of a set text, currently Peter Shaffer’s ‘Equus’.
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Section C: Interpreting a Performance Text – one essay question assessing how a student would use a theatre practitioner to stage an interpretation, currently Aristophanes’ ‘Lysistrata’.