Drama Department

The aims of the Drama Department at Yavneh College are:

  • To give every pupil the opportunity to perform and to enable them to develop both their performance skills and their creativity.
  • To encourage pupils to appreciate a wide range of drama, from classic plays to modern performances and improvisation.
  • To allow pupils to work effectively, responsibly and responsively as members of a group.
  • To help pupils develop their critical thinking about texts, issues and situations through work in role.
  • To encourage pupils to have self-confidence and to develop their communication skills, both in and out of role.

Curriculum

Key Stage 3

The curriculum is designed to develop the skills necessary for future success at GCSE level.  Pupils are taught how to:

  • Translate initial ideas and responses into drama, which might include a tableau, an improvisation or a script
  • Use specialist vocabulary confidently and sustain discussion on a text
  • Use drama techniques and conventions to interpret texts and make meanings
  • Select and shape material into a coherent and effective piece which reveals deepening understanding of a text or situation
  • Use voice, gesture and movement to convey meaning to an audience, making disciplined use of the conventions of performance
  • Analyse and account for their responses to texts
  • Develop their reading skills through engaging critically with the techniques and intentions of writers and directors
  • Develop their writing skills through exploring and scripting plays and a variety of other texts
  • Transfer and apply to other curriculum areas the skills and understanding developed through drama
  • Evaluate their own progress and set personal targets for development
  • Recognise different forms of narrative through the use of story telling
  • Extend narrative using imagination
  • Build upon the concept of characterisation
  • Place characterisation within a narrative
  • Encounter traditionally recognised forms of theatre.
  • Extend characterisation through the recognition of stock characters and the functions they perform
  • Identify and use physicality
  • Explore a Shakespeare text through drama
  • Become familiar with the characters of the play
  • Identify different themes that link the play as a whole
  • Explore different types of characters; mortals, immortals and mechanicals and to dramatise them accordingly
  • Work together in small groups to produce a section of the play in a professional manner.
  • Improvise around the themes and issues presented by the playwright.

Key Stage 4 Curriculum / GCSE

At GCSE level we offer AQA Drama, this course enables pupils to build on the skills they developed at Key Stage 3 and gain a much more indepth knowledge of Drama and acting.

The curriculum covers a variety of dramatic conventions from improvisation to scripted work and encourages pupils to delve in to every aspect of performing, rather than simply focusing on being in front of an audience.

During the GCSE course pupils will study:

  • Acting
  • Improvisation
  • Theatre in Education
  • The role of the Stage Manager
  • Directing
  • Drama Practioners

Assessment

Methods of assessment can include;

  • Observation of individuals in the early stages of group work and subsequently in rehearsals or presentation
  • The use of evidence from pupils’ working notebooks and other visual and written records made during the process of moving from ideas to presentation
  • An assessment of the dramatic effectiveness of a presentation which is performed as an assessment opportunity
  • Evaluation of written critical analysis informed by collaborative exploration of a text
  • Consideration of self- and peer assessments and evaluations of individual achievement throughout the process leading to performance

Facilities

Drama is now housed in a purpose built Studio and is awaiting the opening of the School’s Theatre which will open up even more performance opportunites for the pupils.

Enrichment

The Drama Department currently offers a number of enrichments and other extra-curricular opportunities.

We have a very popular Drama Club where pupils are encouraged to hone their improvisational skills, given the opportunity to develop their skills with scripts and enhance their knowledge of backstage production work.

Theatre trips are another popular activity.

Pupils at Yavneh excel when it comes to whole school performances and this is an aspect of school life that we are keen to see continuing long into the future. The Drama Department, working closely with the Music Department, has already built a reputation for spectacular productions, our most recent being a truly amazing performance of ‘Les Misérables - The Schools’ Edition’