DRAMA - learning journey & curriculum

Drama at Cleeve School seeks to transform lives by creating a stimulating and supportive learning environment. The department aims to enhance and develop the skills and talents of all students. Our subject curriculum endeavours to encourage a passion for creativity and learning. We provide pupils with high levels of core knowledge and understanding and aim to ensure that each individual student will achieve excellence from their individual starting points. Drama at Cleeve School asks students to think for themselves, search for and create opportunities to communicate an intended message.

We aim to encourage all pupils to question the society in which they live and raise their cultural capital. Drama seeks to encourage our students to reflect on their lives in Bishops Cleeve and look beyond to consider the difference that they could make. Our students are guided in the art of analysis and evaluation which enables them to identify effective approaches to development. Through a process of reflection students can push themselves to achieve highly. We remind them that they are enough and that their opinions have value and should be heard. We want them to see that they can promote change and have a voice through the medium of theatre.

Our curriculum aims to inspire futures enabling students to explore the various paths of performer, director and designer. Students are exposed to potential career opportunities in the world of theatre inspiring them to make informed choices. All students are encouraged to talk like, write like and think like a Drama Practitioner. They immerse themselves in the work of key practitioners, replicate their work and in doing so forge their own path.

The GCSE and A level criteria is embedded within our ambitious KS3 Drama curriculum which delivers a foundation knowledge for all students. At the end of Year 9 all KS3 students have been introduced to a comprehensive variety of theatrical genres, practitioners, plays and performance skills. Students absorb knowledge through stimulating practical sessions and they are introduced to GCSE level terminology to develop vocabulary rich students. Oracy is a key focus in lessons and all students are taught to verbalise their performance intentions. Students are taught to analyse and evaluate to enable them to refine and amend their own performances. This fundamental knowledge is developed further at KS4 and KS5.

All students have a working knowledge of varied theatre practitioners, styles, theatrical techniques and conventions. They practically focus on key performance skills, exploring vocal, movement and interaction. They explore the roles of Performer, Director and Designer. Students reflect on live theatre to inspire their own creativity and become expert theatre critics.

We aim to create an inclusive environment and a feeling of belonging for all students with the intention of building confidence. All lessons provide scaffolding and complex ideas are introduced incrementally. We assess students in a holistic and strategic way to understand their strengths and interests, identify any misconceptions or gaps in knowledge and we then adapt our teaching accordingly. The practical and creative activities embedded in the Drama curriculum enable students to express themselves.

We encourage students to ask new questions, solve new problems and find a way to communicate ideas and meaning. They are introduced to the work of varied practitioners and genres of theatre to enable them to ask and seek answers for those questions in a variety of ways. We also aim to close gaps by offering opportunities. We work with our students to improve cultural capital by introducing them to live theatre. We ensure that we work with a diverse range of texts to reflect all students in the curriculum and we consistently work to remove barriers and find solutions.

Our core curriculum has foundational synergies with both the GCSE and A-Level Drama criteria. We focus on the key words: generate, engage, comprehend, question and achieve. We ask our students to be creative and collaborative in their approach to lessons. We encourage them to communicate, develop their ideas and make strong connections between theory and practice. We want them to believe in themselves, develop confidence and feel that they are worthy enough to contribute.

It is important for our students to apply their own ideas and intentions, effectively realise them in performance and experience a sense of achievement. We want students to feel connected to their audience, their peers, their family, the society they live in and the truths they identify with. We introduce students to four core visions: Director, Designer, Actor & Theatre Critic. Each of these ‘visions’ are applied throughout KS3 to enable students to identify and understand the key strands at KS4 and KS5.