Drama

 

Curriculum intent

At Hayes School, our commitment is to provide moments of joy, support pupils to thrive beyond our gates, and nurture community and character through a curriculum that is conceptual, inclusive and responsive. Our values — kindness, endeavour, inclusivity and responsibility — shape every aspect of this curriculum. They ensure that every pupil, particularly the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, is known, supported and challenged to achieve highly and to flourish in school and beyond.

 

Purpose

Through curriculum and extra-curricular Drama we strive at Hayes to create an open-minded and experimental community, unafraid to take risks and explore the essence of human behaviour through process and performance.

Over 3, 5 or 7 years of study, we focus on developing our students’ interpersonal, teamwork and performance skills; developing their ability to communicate confidently, sensitively and with flair. The attributes of the Hayes Learner – Independence, Creativity, Communication, being a Team Player and being Reflective – are explicit in the learning of our students at all Key Stages; as a department we believe that Drama has a vital role to play in the SMSC development of all students.

We expose our students to excellence through a department of experienced subject-specialists, regular professional workshops, theatre visits and in-house productions that always look to redefine the audience’s traditional expectations of a “school play”.

It is our intention that students who leave us after 7 years of study should not just understand the impact major theatre practitioners have made on the arts and society as a whole, but have the potential to be the theatre practitioners of the future.

 

Specification Information

 

 

GCSE WJEC Drama

A Level Edexcel Pearson Drama

Academic end points
Year 7  The ontological structure of knowledge in Drama in Year 7 is primarily vertical. In the autumn term Students will have explored a tool-kit of practical techniques that they will have been able to apply in the 4 schemes of learning that follow. By the end of the year students should be able to present in performance a range of stereotypical and archetypal characterisation, be able to present a clear story in a piece of performance group work, create short, rehearsed improvisations and behave appropriately as performers and as a watching audience. Each scheme develops the students’ understanding of how these skills are essential for successfully communicating with an audience and structuring coherent drama. By the end of the year students should be able to use the skills they learn in term one in their practical work with minimal prompting.
Year 8

In Year 8 the ontological structure becomes more horizontal as students are introduced to a range of contrasting theatre forms, styles and genres to which the skills learnt in Year 7 can be applied. By the end of Year 8, students will have practically explored the story and themes of two classical texts - introducing students to two important periods in theatre history, the dramatic features of two contrasting genres, two specific theatre forms and a recent historical event. Students should now begin recognising the cultural and social importance of Drama through the ages. In performance, Characterisation should be more nuanced and three-dimensional, and students should be starting to show some empathy and truthfulness in their performances.  
Year 9 In the final year of KS3 Drama students will have developed both a practical and theoretical knowledge of a range of influential practitioners and three distinct forms of theatre – Physical Theatre, Naturalism/Realism and Theatre in Education. Through this they will have developed a strong understanding of how theatre can effectively combine with other art forms, how to create a piece of didactic theatre for an age-specific audience and how to use extended improvisation to create a naturalistic performance. All of these skills provide students with either the tools they need to move into GCSE Drama, or to recognise and analyse performance elements of other areas of the curriculum at KS4 and 5.
Year 10 By the end of Year 10 students will have begun to accumulate a range of performance or design skills that deepen their understanding of both devised and scripted performance. All students will have studied the examination set text Noughts and Crosses in the Autumn Term, learning how to apply their own directorial, design and performance ideas to the text. In the Spring Term they will have created an extended piece of theatre from a script and performed it to a target audience of Year 5 or Year 6 pupils from a Trust Primary School. Finally, in the Summer Term this they will have begun work on a devised piece, utilising the ideas and techniques of Bertold Brecht. Students will have engaged in 2 long term creative projects, developing the ability to analyse and critically assess their work and the work of others.
Year 11 By the end of Year 11 students will have recognised the horizontal ontological structure of the knowledge they have acquired studying GCSE Drama. By exploring Bertolt Brecht as the chosen practitioner for their Component 1 Devised unit and comparing this with their work on Stanislavski when exploring Noughts and Crosses in Year 10 they will have observed how the two most influential theatre practitioners of the 20th Century both compliment and contrast each other, developing a growing understanding of how space, form, design and context can impact on a production. Students will have developed the skills to analyse a piece of live theatre in some depth, particularly how the performance and design aspects of a play generate a range of audience responses. Students will have learnt to approach a role with clear artistic intentions, creating text-based performances that are true to the writer’s intentions.  
Year 12 By the end of Year 12 Students will have gained an overview of the theories and techniques of a range of influential theatre practitioners of the modern era – revisiting Stanislavski and Brecht and being introduced to Artaud and Berkoff. They will have begun to explore a modern text with the emphasis on developing their understanding of Total Theatre, considering the importance of both performance and design elements. Working in groups, students will have explored an abridged version of a full-length published play, taking this exploration from read-through to performance. This process will have enabled them to gain an in-depth understanding of character, form, context and design, whilst working with one of their teachers as a director will have provided valuable insight into the complexities of that profession. Students will have ended the year undertaking a series of exploratory workshops into the practitioner chosen for their Year 13 Devised pieces, gaining an invaluable foundation from which to develop their pieces.
Year 13 By the end of Year 13 students will have developed a strong understanding of a wide range of dramatic styles and forms, having devised and performed in or designed a self-created piece of theatre inspired by a modern play text and performed in the style of a current professional Theatre Practitioner. This will have enabled pupils to explore current socio-political themes and present them in a challenging format, fully analysed and evaluated in an accompanying portfolio.  Students will have revisited their scripted pieces from Year 12, accompanying then with a contrasting monologue or duologue, demonstrating a high awareness of characterisation and communication with an audience. For the cumulative written examination students will have thoroughly explored the performance and production values of a modern and classical text, creating a detailed production concept from each that fully incorporates each text’s historical, social and cultural context. Alongside this they will have explored and analysed a current professional production in relation to its impact on a modern audience. Whether focusing on performance or design, students will have accumulated a thorough practical, theoretical and discursive knowledge of how theatre historically influences, engages with and provides a voice for different cultures, communities and social movements.

 

Click here visualise the Drama learner journey