Drama

Curriculum Intent

Drama is a powerful subject that not only plants seeds, but grows and saves minds! Here at Bishops it has an innate power to bring about change, powerfully changing the direction for some of our students, enabling them to see that their voice matters rather than just being told this is the case. Drama enables our students to discover, research not only the Theatre world through the eyes of Performer, Audience, Production but also to see the power it holds enabling cultural capital progress but also those transferable skills that are fundamental to all. STEM is of course really important but when we add the A and create STEAM it is the A (The Arts) that gives it power, this not only embraces creativity, imagination and problem solving. Quite simply, there isn’t any aspect of Drama that does not have a purpose whether it be for students that just enjoy, wish to be a performer or creator or quite simply any part of the job sector but most importantly a wonderful human being. The Arts are taken seriously at Bishops enabling students to truly choose their path and embrace a different channel for understanding the world around them.

Student Learning Journey

Students at Bishops start with the journey of learning the history of Theatre, by travelling back in time and embracing the different formats that existed, understanding their key components to enable them to place the techniques learnt into performance, created with imagination and empathy, they then travel through what it is to create a performance, using collaboration and understanding, breaking down a performance and then building it back up to see what it truly takes. By the end of the student journey students have experienced what it is like to be on the stage, behind the stage and indeed becoming knowledgeable as to being an informed audience member. Widening their cultural knowledge for not only the students but for their families as well. The journey also enables them to build their self-esteem, understanding of the world around them and have empathy for others by researching what it is to step into another’s shoes.

Key Stage 3 in Drama

At KS3, in line with the National Curriculum students will it is sad that Drama is not on the National Curriculum, albeit attached to English moderately however it does state that

Pupils will be taught to:

  • speak confidently and effectively, including through:
  • using Standard English confidently in a range of formal and informal contexts, including classroom discussion
  • giving short speeches and presentations, expressing their own ideas and keeping to the point
  • participating in formal debates and structured discussions, summarising and/or building on what has been said
  • improvising, rehearsing and performing play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact.
  • Pupils should be taught to:
  • develop an appreciation and love of reading, and read increasingly challenging material independently through:
  • reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, including in particular whole books, short stories, poems and plays with a wide coverage of genres, historical periods, forms and authors. The range will include high-quality works from: • English literature, both pre-1914 and contemporary, including prose, poetry and drama • Shakespeare (two plays) • seminal world literature
  • choosing and reading books independently for challenge, interest and enjoyment.
  • re-reading books encountered earlier to increase familiarity with them and provide a basis for making comparisons.
  • understand increasingly challenging texts through:
  • learning new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries
  • making inferences and referring to evidence in the text
  • knowing the purpose, audience for and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension
  • checking their understanding to make sure that what they have read makes sense.
  • read critically through:
  • knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning
  • recognising a range of poetic conventions and understanding how these have been used
  • studying setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these
  • understanding how the work of dramatists is communicated effectively through performance and how alternative staging allows for different interpretations of a play
  • making critical comparisons across texts
  • studying a range of authors, including at least two authors in depth each year.

In Year 7 students will focus on understanding how the work of dramatists is communicated effectively through performance and how alternative staging allows for different interpretations of a play

In Year 8 students will build on  studying setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these, improvising, rehearsing and performing play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact

By Year 9 students will be able improvising, rehearsing and performing play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact

Key Stage 4 in Drama

At KS4, students will study AQA GCSE will apply knowledge and understanding when making, performing and responding to drama

  • explore performance texts, understanding their social, cultural and historical context including the theatrical conventions of the period in which they were created
  • develop a range of theatrical skills and apply them to create performance
  • work collaboratively to generate, develop and communicate ideas
  • develop as creative, effective, independent and reflective students who are able to make informed choices in process and performance
  • contribute as an individual to a theatrical performance
  • reflect on and evaluate their own work and that of others
  • develop an awareness and understanding of the roles and processes undertaken in contemporary professional theatre practice
  • adopt safe working practices.

Key Stage 5 in Drama

At KS5, students will Edexcel A Level –

Devise an original performance piece.

  • Use one key extract from a performance text and a theatre practitioner as stimuli.
  • Centre choice of text and practitioner.
  • Performer or designer routes available.

A group performance/design realisation of one key extract from a performance text.

  • A monologue or duologue performance/design realisation from one key extract from a different performance text.
  • Centre choice of performance texts.

Live theatre evaluation – choice of performance.

  • Practical exploration and study of a complete performance text – focusing on how this can be realised for performance.
  • Practical exploration and interpretation of another complete performance text, in light of a chosen theatre practitioner – focusing on how this text could be reimagined for a contemporary audience.
  • Centre choice of 15 performance texts from two lists on the next page.
  • Choice of eight practitioners

How is Drama taught?

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.

At Bishops we are able to create a love of the Theatre through the passion that is passed on, enabling young people to truly understand the aspect of the Theatre and the work of Theatre makers.

Retrieval Activity – this includes a discussion as to what has been learnt in previous lesson, key words, key context

Information about what we will be learning

Modelling, scaffolding – teacher led or if possible student led or a mixture of both

Application by students and verbal feedback by peers and teacher

Performance, continued rehearsal or creation of production piece or written piece

Explanation as to what will happen next lesson so students are prepared, homework if required.

Rewards given

Home learning

Home learning is often linked to the work that the students will be looking at next lesson or indeed a final piece of work in relation to the module studied. Therefore work is either set at the end of the assessment, or intermediately in relation to the work being studied.

For example Year 9 – are preparing pieces for Noughts and Crosses and therefore are currently learning lines. Year 8 are doing set top boxes and are therefore planning their designs. Year 7 are preparing their piece for performance and are therefore writing script and learning lines.