Performing Arts

Drama

All pupils should be enabled to participate in and gain knowledge, skills and understanding associated with the artistic practice of drama. Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre performances.

Aims

  • Role-play and other drama techniques can help pupils to identify with and explore characters. In these ways, they extend their understanding of what they read and have opportunities to try out the language they have listened to.
  • Drama and role-play can contribute to the quality of pupils’ writing by providing opportunities for pupils to develop and order their ideas through playing roles and improvising scenes in various settings.
  • In years 3 and 4, pupils should become more familiar with and confident in using language in a greater variety of situations, for a variety of audiences and purposes, including through drama, formal presentations and debate.
  • Reading, re-reading, and rehearsing poems and plays for presentation and performance give pupils opportunities to discuss language, including vocabulary, extending their interest in the meaning and origin of words. Pupils should be encouraged to use drama approaches to understand how to perform plays and poems to support their understanding of the meaning. These activities also provide them with an incentive to find out what expression is required, so feeding into comprehension.

Music

Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high- quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.

Aims

The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:

perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the inter-related dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations.

Curriculum Learning Journeys

Key Stage 3 Drama

Hours taught by fortnight

Drama Curriculum Learning Journey

Key Stage 3 Music

Hours taught by fortnight

Music Curriculum Learning Journey

Key Stage 4 Drama

Course content

GCSE Drama is split into 3 Units.

Unit 1 – students create their own performance from a stimulus to perform in front of an audience. This will then be backed up and evaluated through a portfolio of up to 2000 words.

Unit 2 – students study 2 key extracts from the set play text. This could be in the form of a group performance, duologues or monologues. This will be performed in front of a visiting examiner.

Unit 3 – written exam where students will analyse a play and a performance they have seen during the course. A theatre visit is compulsory

To be successful in this course, it is essential that students have a desire to use the drama medium to learn and to broaden their horizons both in their practical and written work. They must be prepared to work well with other students.

Hours taught by fortnight

Drama Curriculum Learning Journey

Exam Board – Pearson

Specification 

Assessment

Non exam assessment Devising 40% of qualification
Non exam assessment Performance from text 20% of qualification
Exam (1.75 hours) Theatre makers in practice 40% of the qualification

Key Stage 4 Music

Course content

Music GCSE is based on the three areas of Performing, Composing and Listening.

During Year 9, students will participate in weekly class performance and composition
workshops gaining experience on their chosen instrument and developing their theoretical understanding. During Years 10 and 11 students apply this experience to the curriculum and to completing Controlled Assessment towards their final GCSE assessment.

During the three years, students will study FOUR Areas of Study:

1. Musical Forms & Devices

2. Music for Ensemble

3. Film Music

4. Popular Music

Hours taught by fortnight

Music Curriculum Learning Journey

Exam Board – Eduqas

Specification 

Assessment

Non exam assessment Performance – A minimum of two pieces, one of which must be an ensemble performance of at least one minute duration. 30% of qualification
Non exam assessment Composing – Two compositions, one of which must be in response to a brief set by WJEC. 30% of qualification
Exam (1.25 hours) Appraising – A listening exam. 40% of the qualification