“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, making mistakes and having fun” Mary Lou Cook
At the centre of all drama is COMMUNICATION. Like all the arts, drama allows students to communicate with and understand others in new ways. It can CHALLENGE STDUENTS’ PERCEPTIONS about their world and about themselves. Dramatic exploration can provide students with an outlet for emotions, thoughts, and dreams that they might not otherwise have means to express. A student can, if only for a few moments, BECOME ANOTHER, explore a new role, try out and experiment with various personal choices and solutions to problems from their own life, or problems faced by characters in literature or historical figures. This can happen in a SAFE ATMOSPHERE, where actions and consequences can be examined, discussed, and in a very real sense EXPERIENCED without the dangers and pitfalls that such experimentation would obviously lead to in the “real” world. Students in drama will learn to WORK TOGETHER, to cooperate, and to listen to and accept the viewpoints and contributions of others. Students who have participated in dramatic activities are less likely to have difficulty SPEAKING IN PUBLIC, will be more PERSUASIVE in their communications, both written and oral, will be better able to put themselves into others’ shoes and relate to them, and will have a more POSITIVE, CONFIDENT SELF IMAGE.
Throughout the course there will be opportunities to act, devise, design, review and analyse. It is an active course where students will not only be up and doing, but also one where they must be able to reflect on their work and the work of others.
The department also offers a variety of extra-curricular activities for pupils including talent shows, drama clubs, GCSE parent showcases and a whole school production.
The Drama department has high expectations of all pupils and aims to develop creative, resourceful and independent learners and to prepare and equip them for life for when they leave Little Lever School, for further study or employment in a Performing Arts career pathway.
Each half term will host a new unit of work. During each of the units of work there will be two assessment points, as well as regular verbal feedback and peer assessment during lessons. The main assessment point will be the final assessment where students are graded from 1-9 in respect of the target grades. The mid unit assessment will give focus of where they are at that point and give non formal feedback on how to ensure they meet their target grades.
All assessments will be uploaded to Google drive and will be marked as 1-9 in line with the school assessment criteria. Marksheets can be generated from this and used for Parent’s Evenings and SIMS marksheets.
Pupils will receive personalised feedback via the google drive system.
Drama can continue after KS3 with pupils choosing during the options process to study GCSE Drama.
Currently we study the AQA GCSE course. We believe, after extensive research, this is the best specification for our students to study Drama GCSE. The course is broken down into three main areas:
Component 1: Understanding Drama (written examination) = 40% of the final grade
What is assessed?
- Knowledge and understanding of drama and theatre
- Study of one set play (Blood Brothers)
- Analysis and evaluation of the work of live theatre makers
Component 2: Devising Drama (practical and devising log) = 40% of the final grade
What is assessed?
- Process of creating devised drama
- Performance of devised drama
- Analysis and evaluation of own work
Component 3: Texts In Practice (practical) = 20% of the final grade
What is assessed?
- Performance of two extracts from on play. Free choice of play but it must contrast with the set play for Component 1.