Subject: Drama
Head of Subject: Miss R Vanstone
Vision
At Hawkley Hall High School, the Drama Department endeavours to ignite passions and embrace creativity. The curriculum is designed to engage, motivate, and inspire pupils of all abilities and ages and develop in them a passion for Drama and Theatre. We aim to inspire a love of learning through a curriculum and an extra-curricular programme that enables students to develop an extensive practical skillset as well as a deep, broad, and rigorous theoretical understanding of Drama and Theatre. We want our pupils to be prepared for the challenges they will face in life and so we equip them with confidence, resilience, and a determination.
Intent
Throughout their time at Hawkley Hall, students are taught the following key skills:
- Create and develop ideas to communicate meaning for theatrical performance
- Apply theatrical skills to realise artistic intentions in live performance
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how drama and theatre is developed and performed
- Analyse and evaluate their own work and the work of others
- Literacy and reading, life skills and resilience.
Our curriculum follows the Magenta principles, where students learn:
- The consequence of thinking
- Language is central to thinking
- Learning is an active process
Students in key stage 3 study a challenging course in Drama, allowing students to experience hands on practical activities which focus on enrichment and confidence building where expression and creativity is key. All SOW use Magenta Principles, Rosenshines Principles and use of Walk Thru techniques. SOW have a specific focus on Literacy and follow the manoeuvring the middle format. Year 7 SOW also make use of mindfulness techniques to help pupils with the transition from primary to secondary. Each SOW in each year group builds on skills, using different stimuli, sequenced in a way that is designed to explore and develop these skills – this could be a technique, a text, a genre, or a Performing Arts discipline. These skills are then tested at the end of each SOW both practically and in a theory lesson. Factual recall of skills is used and applied at the beginning of the next.
Learning Journey
Curriculum Description
Schedule of Learning (KS3 and 4)
Lesson 1- Sharing of KO and generic three year Target Sheet
Lesson 2 – Sharing of specific Unit of Work Assessment and Feedback Sheets (AFS)
Lesson 4 – Return to KO used for a home learning task
Lesson 5 – RAP time – using (AFS) for peer assessment
Lesson 6 – Performance – using (AFS) for teacher assessment
Lesson 7 – Theory Lesson – using (AFS) for Self- assessment with *?! And concluding with the KO.
- In Year 7 students are taught Drama in their mixed ability forms. In Years 8 and 9 students are taught in mixed ability classes. Throughout Key Stage 3 Students are taught Drama 1 hour a week. Assessments are completed every half term to track and monitor the progress of students in each subject. Feedback is provided to students in terms of the skills they are working towards or have mastered. Targets for further improvement are then shared with students.
- At Key Stage 4 Drama is a subject that is taught as a GCSE option and students that opt to take Drama in Key Stage 4 have 3 hours a week in Year 10 and 2 hours a week in Year 11 and are working towards one GCSE qualification. They follow the AQA GCSE Drama 8261 specification. They will be awarded a grade 1-9 following their GCSE examinations in the summer of Year 11. Assessments to track progress are set regularly throughout each half term. With feedback being related to GCSE criteria to highlight areas of strength.
- The topics students cover throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 are outlined in the table below:
GCSE Exam Board Specifications
The specification code for GCSE Drama is 8261. Click here to view the GCSE specification