Performing Arts and Drama

The Performing Arts department seek to inspire confidence and leadership skills in all pupils whilst relishing new challenges and experiences both within and outside the classroom.

Mrs Callaghan
Subject Leader

Staff

Mrs C Callaghan – Subject Leader

Ethos

The Performing Arts department seek to inspire confidence and leadership skills in all pupils whilst relishing new challenges and experiences both within and outside the classroom. The Performing Arts is a safe environment in which pupils can explore their own personalities and experiment with their ideas without fear of failure or ridicule, resulting in successful, reflective, creative, confident young members of our society.

Aims

Our curriculum for Performing Arts aims to ensure that all pupils:

Develop practical performance skills.
Have the confidence to create and perform both independently and as a team.
Learn about different social and cultural functions of performing arts and drama.
Develop confidence and communication skills through imaginative self-expression.

Progression

Students can progress from this course to:

A Level Drama or A Level Theatre Studies as preparation for entry to higher education in a range of subjects.
Vocational qualification at Level 3, such as a BTEC National in Performing Arts, which prepares learners to enter employment or apprenticeships, or to move on to higher education by studying a degree in the Performing Arts.
This progression route can also lead ultimately to employment in the performing arts sector such as actors, dancers, directors and choreographers

KS3 Curriculum

Year 7, 8 and 9

In Year 7, 8 and 9 all pupils follow the KS3 Drama strand in the English National Curriculum alongside the Arts Council England Drama Criteria, focussing on exploring, creating, communicating and responding to theatre. They receive one lesson of Performing Arts per fortnight and are taught in mixed attainment groups. Pupils in KS3 will be assessed at the end of each topic on a half-termly basis, as well as formative assessment in class to ensure expected progress is being made. The introductory scheme in Year 7 is designed to give the pupils the skills to discuss and create basic drama performances. In later topics, students will enhance their ability to imaginatively create and communicate their ideas to an audience using basic technical equipment to enhance their work. In Year 8, pupils will develop the skills they have learnt through more challenging topics, with greater emphasis on the social and cultural benefits of performing arts and drama as well as gain a wider knowledge of the career opportunities within the industry. In Y9, pupils get the chance to put all of their knowledge and experience into tackling projects similar to those that they would study at KS4.

Subject Content

Topics covered at KS3 include:

· Year 7: An Introduction to Basic Performance Skills, Silent Movies, Devising Theatre, Scripted Theatre (Teechers by John Godber), Technical Theatre and Workshopping Existing Repertoire.

· Year 8: Modernising Shakespeare, Monologues, Theatre Practitioners, Scripted Theatre (Blood Brothers by Willy Russell), Theatre in Education and The Performing Arts Industry.

· Year 9: Exploring the Performing Arts Industry, Developing Skills & Techniques in the Performing Arts Industry,

KS4 Curriculum

Year 10 and 11

All students will study BTEC Level 1/Level 2 Tech Award in Performing Arts, in which they will study 3 components. They are taught in mixed attainment groups depending on who has chosen to opt to study the subject for KS4. All students are taught by the Head of Subject and study over two years, completing the course at the end of Y11. Pupils will develop and apply skills and techniques in rehearsal and performance and review their own development as a performer. Pupils will have the opportunity to communicate intentions to an audience through a variety of styles and they will take part in workshops and classes where they will develop technical, practical and interpretative skills through the rehearsal and performance process. Pupils will work from existing performing arts repertoire, applying relevant skills and techniques to reproduce the work.

The specification for this subject is below:

BTEC Level 1/Level 2 Tech Award in Performing Arts Specification

Subject Content

The BTEC Level 1/Level 2 Tech Award in Performing Arts is split into three components that will be completed over two years:

Component 1: Exploring the Performing Arts
- Exploring professional practitioners’ performance work and developing and understanding of the performing arts.
- Understand the job roles, skills and requirements of being an actor, director and performance technician.
- Develop an appreciation of styles and genres of performances.
- Explore techniques used to create performing arts work.

Component 2: Developing Skills and Techniques in the Performing Arts
- Exploring professional and commercial performing arts industry skills.
- Applying and developing individual performance skills.

Component 3: Responding to a Brief
- Creating original performance material.
- Understanding how to respond to a brief by selecting and developing skills in response to a specific stimulus.
- Developing and applying skills and techniques in rehearsals and a workshop performance.
- Evaluating both the creative process and the final performance outcome in response to a brief.

Assessment

Pearson BTEC Level 1/Level 2 Tech Award in Performing Arts

Component Number	Component Title	Guided Learning Hours	How assessed + % of course
1	Exploring the Performing Arts	36	Internal 30%
2	Developing Skills and Techniques in the Performing Arts	36	Internal 30%
3	Responding to a Brief	48	External Synoptic (40%)

Courses Offered at KS4

Find out about the courses we offer at KS4 including examination and enrichment courses.

Subjects

“Subject leaders have crafted a curriculum which enables pupils to build on their prior knowledge.” OFSTED 2022

CURRICULUM MAPS

Take a deeper look at what our curriuculum covers over KS3 and KS4