Drama

Introduction

Drama is about imagination, creativity and innovation.

It is a fundamental human activity and a powerful lens to use to interpret the world. Drama can challenge, develop and enrich the life of every person in a school’s community, created with the simplest and most complex of resources; people.

The Drama Department is committed to securing a broad and balanced arts provision for all pupils. The ethos for our curriculum is to provide a creative, skills-based programme that places the student at the heart of their learning. Students learn to appreciate drama as a practical activity, an art form and a discipline through which to see the world.

Contact details

Please contact the Head of Department for more information. A full teaching staff list can be found under 'About Us' 'Staff and Governance'.

Head of Department: Ms N Brown    Email: n.brown@ccfplus.com

What your child will be learning (curriculum mapping)

To view the Curriculum Overview document, please click here. 

To view the curriculum roadmap for KS3 and KS4, please click here. 

Aims and enrichment

Aims

The CCF Drama curriculum prepares students to be creative, self expressive and imaginative. We want all students to have a firm understanding of acting skills and techniques. We aim to embed the importance and the promotion of creativity through application of skills.

Enrichment

The Drama Department offers a minimum of three opportunities per year to be part of a school production.

This has included taking part in the Shakespeare Schools Festival, the National Theatre Connections project, the annual school Arts Award evening and whole school musicals. We have also performed to primary schools and create smaller scale performances as part of the weekly KS3 Drama Club.

The department also provides trips to each year group, at least once a year. These have included trips to see West End productions of Aladdin, School of Rock and Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and to take part in workshops with professional actors from WAC Arts and Punchdrunk. The department has close links with the Arts Depot Theatre and UCL Institute of Education, which provides us with great opportunities to enrich learning.

Year 11 are also offered intervention sessions. 

Key stage 3

Year 7

The students will be introduced to the key skills and basic techniques in Drama. The is focused around the use of vocal skills, physical skills and use of space. In doing so, students will explore the following schemes: Techniques and skills, Silent Movies, Working with Scripts, Detectives, Pantomime and Superheroes.

Year 8

The students will develop their knowledge and understanding of the key Drama skills and techniques and gain a deeper understanding of how to devise their own performances through collaboration and self directed work. Students will explore a range of more challenging Drama techniques through the schemes Devising From a Stimulus, Our Day Out (by Willy Russel), Monologues and Weddings.

Year 9

The students continue to develop their performance skills, while exploring theatre practioners and using theatre to explore relevent social and political topics. Students will do this through explroring the works of Brecht and Stansilavski as well as studying the play DNA, Physical Theatre and Theatre in Education. Students will also complete their Year 9 Devising Project at the end of the year where they will show case all of their skills and technoques they have developed throughout KS3 in a student devised performance. In KS3 we look at a broad spectrum of drama skills, scripts and approaches.

Key stage 4

Exam Board: Edexcel

Year 10

Year 10 starts with honing skills and performing at our annual Arts Award Evening around Christmas. We will also visit a theatre, ready to evaluate it for our exam. We then undertake Component 1 of the course, made up of a devised piece of drama which is performed to parents, and a written portfolio focused on the process of creating the drama. This makes up 40% of the course.

Year 11

In Year 11 we begin by exploring the set text: DNA by Dennis Kelly. Component 2 is next, involving the preparation of a monologue and group piece using extracts from the play Adult Child/Dead Child by Claire Dowie. This is worth 20% and is examined in the Spring term. Finally, we revise DNA and our Live Theatre Evaluation ready for our exam in the Summer Term, which is worth 40% of the final grade.