Drama Department Vision
The Drama department is young and lively - just like our boys! With our dedicated Drama studio students are fully supported in their learning environment to achieve their very best. The atmosphere of lessons, whether practical or theory based, is focused and creative – with a strong emphasis on engagement.
As a department, we strongly believe that Drama provides students with many key skills for the future:
The development of communication skills in a variety of formsTeamwork and leadershipThe confidence to perform in front of peers in a secure environmentThe ability to debate and to listen to othersTo creatively express themselves - not only in terms of performing, but also through the arts, such as mask making or set design
Key stage 3
Year 7 students have two lessons of Drama a week, and the content incorporates part of the PHSCE curriculum, such as exploring issues around democracy, money management and current affairs.
Year 8 and 9 have one lesson a week with the option to continue studying at GCSE. Each year the boys will study a set text, the work of a theatre practitioner, a social issue and a genre of theatre.
These include:
Blood Brothers
Over There
Blackout
The life of Stanislavski
Brecht and Artaud
Exploring Cyberbullying, Knife Crime and Mental Health
Learning to express ourselves in the genre of Melodrama, Greek Theatre and Commedia Dell’arte.
Key Stage 4
Drama GCSE
Exam Board: AQA
At KS4 students follow the new AQA Drama syllabus, producing a range of performance and practical based coursework.
Topics include
Theatre in Education
Directing
Puppetry
Costume Design.
The work is assessed through on-going projects (60%) and a final exam (40%).
Outside of lessons each year group is invited to attend performances at least once a year – with many of these trips costing students nothing due to our collaboration with The Rose Theatre, Kingston.
As part of our commitment to students’ learning we often invite leading practitioners to offer extra workshops. In recent years we have had representatives from The Globe, The Rose, The Old Vic, Splendid Productions and Kazzum. We reach out to our wider community and have collaborated recently with Surbiton YMCA's theatre group Benchmark and with Tolworth Juniors and Dysart.
We also stage productions, giving students the chance to perform to peers and parents. This experience is vital to extending student’s acting skills and enabling them to find out what life is like in front of and behind the curtain. Every year we host a Murder Mystery in collaboration with the DT department and recent productions include Blood Brothers, The Odyssey, Moby Dick and The Jungle Book.
Key Stage 5:
Level 3 BTEC Performing Arts
Exam Board: Edexcel
Edexcel Performing Arts information
A BTEC in Performing Arts is widely recognised in the workplace. People with qualifications in Performing Arts are considered to have acquired the ‘soft skills’ that businesses value such as confidence, empathy, the ability to communicate to the public and also to work under pressure.
So even if you do not see acting or the performing arts as a career the skills that you learn in BTEC Performing Arts are valuable and transferable
Skills students will learn and develop
Critical analytical skills- both writing and verbalising, of performances and of yourself as an actorEnhancing current performance skills- practitioners and stylesHarvard referencingInterpreting more complex textsIdentify why playwrights write what they do-contextCollaboratingLeading/team building/confidence boosting/developing emotional intelligence/ self discipline
Summary of the course
This is an Extended Certificate, the equivalent of one A-level and is valuaed as such by universities and employers. It is intended to be taken alongside other Sixth Form courses.
The structure is of 4 units over two years with four lessons or workshops every week. The focus is on acting and is very practical.
Curriculum Maps
The units cover three mandatory areas: Investigating Practitioners’ Work; Developing Skills and Techniques for Live Performance; Group Performance Workshop. The fourth unit focuses on dance performance.
