'We must all do theatre to find out who we are, and discover who we could become'- Augusto Boal 

Intent

Within the Drama curriculum we explore, introduce key performance skills, conventions and a variety of different genres of performances.  We encourage students to build on their creativity, teamwork, expressive and performance skills. Students will be provided with in depth learning about the devising process and how to analyse professional plays to develop their critical thinking.

Our curriculum aims to:

• Fostering a creative environment that encourages students to experience and understand a range of Drama genres and conventions. 
• Challenge and support students to take creative risks to develop a love for learning Drama thus enabling them to evoke the power of their creativity and imagination. 
• Provide students with opportunities to explore Drama both inside and outside of the classroom to encourage future creative pathways within the industry.
• Promote and celebrate progress through a supportive and collaborative Drama classroom to enable all students to thrive. 

Meta-concepts

The following meta-concepts underpin our curriculum:

• Creativity – To think outside the box and use their imagination to devise engaging performances.  
• Devising – To produce, create and direct their own inventive performances.
• Expression – To engage the audience by portraying emotions, carefully created characters and themes.
• Teamwork – To successfully work as a collective company with their peers to produce high quality work.
• Reflection – To analyse and evaluate your own work, peers and professional Theatre productions and plays.
• Interpretation – To  identify and explore different styles of theatre and stimuli to create their own performances to portray valuable opinions and views.

Drama curriculum sequence

Implementation

Our Drama curriculum is designed to provide enriching lessons to explore various genres and conventions through both practical and theoretical exploration. Through this, students are able to understand the basic skills needed, which they then deepen over the years.

Key Stage 3

At KS3 students have two lessons per fortnight. 

Year 7- We have carefully designed a curriculum for all student to access dance as soon as they join JHS, no matter their previous drama experience or ability. In year 7 students have 2 Dance lessons over a fortnight. They identify the fundamental skills of drama to explore themes in well-known published plays, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Students then take what they have learnt to create their own scenes.

Year 8- In year 8 students are able to develop the skills learnt in year 7 and further explore more genres of Drama, such as horror and verbatim theatre. We also develop their knowledge by teaching higher order performance skills which they then apply to their devising scenes. 

Year 9- In the first two terms of year 9 students have one theory and one practical lesson. Within the theory lesson students will apply their previous knowledge about performance skills and explore this theoretically. Throughout the year students will investigate theatre practitioners and challenging scripts so they can explore and broaden their underrating of the arts in the professional world.

Key Stage 4

In year 10 and 11 students have six lessons over a fortnight.These are split into three practical and three theory lessons.

Year 10 and 11- Throughout year 10 and 11 students will study for their theory component one exam. In this students will both practically and theoretically explore the play Blood Brothers.

Alongside this, in year 10 students will also complete component two which consists of students creating a performance by responding to a stimulus. They will also complete coursework for this.

In year 11 students will learn how to write a live theatre review on Billy Elliot, which will also be in their component one exam. As well as this, students will perform two extracts from published plays.

GCSE specification- Drama

Impact

Our curriculum allows students to explore their artistic development and personal growth through Drama. We focus on providing a comprehensive learning experience, so students are exposed to a broader scope of Drama as an art form. Within this we ensure all students are able to:

• Have a deep understanding and appreciation of different genres to not only expand their knowledge, but also to nurture their cultural understanding to collaborate as a community.
• Explore their own unique artistic voices through experimenting with varied genres, conventions and performance skills. 
• Be critical thinkers through analysing professional plays to develop and performances within their own peer group.
• Utilise the fundamental skills to ensure they are successful in making progress throughout the years, as well as laying the foundations for their future whether that be academically or in the professional industry.