Drama

Subject intent

“Communicating through performance whilst empowering students to explore the world with empathy, creativity and confidence.”

Our curriculum is designed to provide a layering of skills over time and encourage the development of the students’ critical thinking allowing them to progress towards becoming reflective, independent and self-directed learners and human beings.

The curriculum at KS3 prepares students for KS4 by developing the skills required for performing devised and scripted work and evaluating and analysing their own performance and that of others. The drama experiences of students at KS2 can be vastly different, so the curriculum is designed with the assumption that students may have had no previous experience, but equally with the flexibility to allow students with more experience to flourish.

Essentially, the content of the two-year KS3 programme follows a similar pattern in Year 7 and Year 8; using skills to communicate meaning, working with the language of scripts and creating stories through devising. In Year 7, the learning is teacher-led and provides the students with the building blocks required for all dramatic performance, with texts and stimuli chosen for accessibility, representation and maximum engagement. In Year 8, the level of difficulty increases in terms of the stimuli and texts chosen from dramatic literature. The genres studied require more reflection on the wider world. The application of the skills and techniques is more precise and assured, and the level of independence expected from the students also increases.

Mastery of the subject emerges over time through the experience of each successive performance. Re-teach happens as an inherent and embedded part of the subject. For example, throughout the rehearsal process, students respond immediately to live feedback to reflect on and refine their performances before their final assessment.

We want our students to become creative individuals who are passionate, enthusiastic and feel that Drama is enjoyable and challenging. They will have high expectations of the quality of their work and show that they understand the value of written evaluation and analysis as a way of developing their skills as a performer.

Link to KS4 spec:

AQA Drama

AQA Drama Specification

Curriculum plan: