Drama

Drama here at the ICS provides for students to enrich their work by working through a broad cultural, historical and aesthetic context. Therefore, the curriculum is concerned with knowledge, concepts and skills of the art form involving:

 

• Introducing  students to a wide range of text and form and encouraging their interpretation
• Facilitating students in their understanding of the social, cultural, historical and political context in which drama originates and is subsequently performed
• Experimentation into the different ways drama is performed and recorded within a safe and supportive environment
• The introduction of different performance styles and  their context
• Teaching students how to speak and move with fluency and clarity of intention
• Using improvisation to explore central themes and issues and to gain insight into dramatic potential
• Making presentations of drama
• Appraising how their own explorations match those of theatre workers and practitioners
• Developing the skills of a critic in response to live and recorded performances of a range of cultures, styles and genres

 

KS 3

Drama is a compulsory element of the curriculum at KS3, which introduces the history, from ritual drama to formalized theatre structures in a range of cultures and times. Students learn how to work within a dramatic frame, use and read sign, employ health and safety techniques and are introduced to staging and performance technique.

 

Through participation in a range of activities including improvisation, devising, scripting, discussing and reviewing, students work individually and in groups. In addition to this in Year 9 they follow a course of pre GCSE skills which is entitled the ‘bones’ of drama and adds the extended use of the dramatic tensions, focus, cause and effect and dramatic contrast. This aids those who choose to do Drama at GCSE in KS4.

 

KS4 GCSE

We teach GCSE Drama to those who have chosen Drama at GCSE; this course builds on the structure of KS3 and has three assessment objectives:

• To recall, select, use and communicate their knowledge and understanding of Drama in an effective manner to generate ,explore and develop ideas
• Apply practical Drama to communicate in performance
• Analyse and evaluate their own work and that of others using the language of drama

These areas are covered under the headings: Practical Exploring, Text Exploration, Performance and Documenting. Students opting for GCSE Drama may enter for the examination as a performer or as design candidate.

 

KS5 Drama & Theatre Studies AS and A2 Level

In Year 12, students may opt for the GCE Drama and Theatre Studies Advanced Level qualification, which offers a creative approach to all aspects of drama and theatre by:

 

• Developing interest in drama and theatre as participants and informed members of an audience
• Developing  knowledge and understanding of the major influences in theatre
• Offering a range of opportunities to develop drama and theatre skills creatively and imaginatively
• Integrating theory and practice

 

These are covered via specific units the Exploration of Drama and Theatre, Theatre Text in Performance, Exploration of Dramatic Performance and Theatre Text in Context. Students have the opportunity to apply the learning of the course in a performance environment as a performer or a designer.

 

Performances and Visits

The Drama, Music and Art departments work together outside of the curriculum, to stage Secondary School productions and talent searches. Also at times, we attend theatrical performances with our peers in the English Department. This has resulted in taking students to British Schools of the Middle East Performing Arts Festivals in Kuwait and Dubai sometimes the staff of these departments travel to BSME Visual and Performing Arts planning events as we did in Qatar this year.

 

In 2010 we were able to make an Art based external visit to London in the United Kingdom, where we attended theatrical workshops, worked with theatre professionals, toured theatres backstage and watched West End theatrical performances, visited galleries and exhibitions in the arts and linked these to the social -historical aspect of the subject. Subsequently, this visit has supplied a wealth of benefits in the teaching of Drama and to the wider tapestry of Arts Education.

 

The department through its links with the Activity programme supports the teaching of dance and for the last fifteen years has offered British Ballet Organization [UK] examinations in Classical Ballet and Freestyle from Nursery to Advanced level.

 

This wider exposure to the Arts sees the department make opportunity for theatre workers to visit the school and for students to attend external performances and workshops within the community.

 

The department aims for its teaching and learning to be in line with the departmental motto, ‘I do and I understand’.