“Work hard, do the best you can, don’t ever lose faith in yourself and take no notice of what other people say about you.” – Noel Coward
At King’s Leadership Academy Bolton, we believe a high-quality drama education should inspire, engage, build imagination, build confidence and self-expression in students. We believe in equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, create, and produce their own scripted pieces, devised performances, and understand all elements of drama as an art form. As children progress, they should be able to develop a more rigorous understanding of drama and think critically. At King’s we endeavour to offer students a knowledge rich curriculum with opportunities to experiment with a range of techniques, new skills and be introduced to drama as an art form. We aim to instil a deep passion and understanding of the subject and for all students to recognise the many benefits of studying drama. We believe drama not only helps to develop new skills but also creates a broad-mindedness and inquisitiveness for other people, developing empathy and creating a deeper understanding of the world. As a department we aim to ensure that all students produce imaginative work, develop their practical skills and explore their own ideas.
We strive to enable all students to become skilled in scripted work, theoretical theatre, devising and other drama techniques. Students analyse and evaluate creative works using the language of drama and get to know about playwrights, directors and designers, understanding the historical context of drama and development of their technical skills. Our Key Stage 3 curriculum encourages students’ creativity, develops basic dramatic skills in preparation for GCSE and builds confidence in the arts.
Cultural links and history of drama are embedded within texts that are chosen to perform. We inspire students to advance their skills across a range of disciplines. We aim to provide a basis for students to continue their own development of the subject and look to pursue drama in further education.
By studying drama, students will build self-confidence in using a variety of dramatic skills and techniques as they will learn how to use them successfully in order to create a final performance at the end of each cycle. The drama department strongly believes that by studying drama, students will learn that drama has often been a way for performers to overcome challenges, express their feelings and fight for a cause, be empathetic and understand people that differ from ourselves- students will learn this through looking at the historical context of drama and the plays they study.
The projects we develop are carefully tailored to match the typical exam starting points and provide a platform to enable students to meet all assessment objectives.
As there is no national curriculum for drama we as a department aim to ensure that all students:
In Key Stage 4 we encourage our students to develop independent learning skills which are needed in order to achieve a successful GCSE outcome and to equip them for life outside school.
Terminology is embedded through subject specialist teaching, using and applying vocabulary repeatedly throughout teaching and learning. At King’s, each drama lesson has a focus on a subject specific word, designed to increase pupil’s language proficiency and grammatical knowledge. Terminology is embedded through subject specialist teaching, using and applying vocabulary repeatedly throughout teaching and learning, allowing students with Cognition and Learning difficulties opportunities for further recall.
Learners will analyse play texts and will gain confidence with forming opinions and giving feedback to others. This includes discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their understanding of drama and application. The curriculum sees the development of students through a range of drama skills and techniques which increases in difficulty and understanding through KS3, preparing students for GCSE. Each learning cycle students will continue to develop the key dramatical skills required to support them in the GCSE curriculum. Students will develop and apply theatrical skills, as well as understanding the design elements of theatre. They will analyse different plays, genres of theatre, historical context and the theoretical elements of drama as an art form to support them in becoming independent learners. Each learning cycle allows for practical exploration followed by an assessment week. Assessments take direct inspiration from a topic, playwright, or dramatic technique. At GCSE the first component will be creating and developing a devised performance from a stimulus. This is assessed in two parts: the devised performance and a portfolio covering the creative process. Component two is to perform two key extracts from a chosen set text. The final component is the written examination which is the practical exploration and study of one performance text and also a live theatre evaluation. Students will need to demonstrate perseverance throughout the course and learn that mistakes are what help us to improve. However, slowly taking away teacher input in practical elements of the course, means that students with potential barriers to learning can slowly build their independence in the subject whilst still feeling supported.
The curriculum allows and plans for a series of lessons skill building and a couple of lessons to prepare for a performance before performing a final piece for assessment. They will also be given individual teacher feedback after the assessment and peer feedback to address misconceptions and work on that skill throughout the next LC. Verbal feedback and peer feedback is provided continually throughout all lessons. Students will be provided with personalised targets to reflect and improve their previous work. Skills which link directly to our ASPIRE values such as endeavour,integrity, aspiration, and achievement as it takes hard work and dedication not only in school but outside of the school setting to become proficient and then excel and intellectual habits serve students in great stead no matter the direction of which their flight path may take.
Throughout a student’s time at King’s they will study a range of topics gaining knowledge of the world and other cultures. Learners will visit the theatre and take part in theatrical workshops which will broaden their cultural knowledge and understanding. Students will have the opportunity to delve deeper into cultures and create meaningful and personalised responses. We believe drama not only helps to develop new skills but also creates a tolerance and curiosity for other cultures as well as a deeper understanding of the world.
All students with SEND should have the same access to a stretching and challenging curriculum as all other students and study KS3 to GCSE level. Teaching and learning is adapted for SEND students appropriately in line with the inclusion register. The drama curriculum allows for all students to succeed in a range of different skills and techniques. Our curriculum recognises that SEN students are at all ability levels therefore, whilst lessons are adapted in line with the inclusion register, opportunities for stretch and challenge are also vital for SEN students.