Drama
Drama provides students with the opportunity to develop their communication and problem solving skills while increasing an understanding of themselves and those around them through practical activity.
At Woodroffe we believe passionately in the value of drama for all, not just those who want to pursue a career in the performing arts. The skills acquired and developed in drama lessons are both subject specific and life skills, sometimes referred to as ‘transferable skills’.
Intent
At Woodroffe we believe passionately in the value of Drama for all, not just those who want to pursue a career in the performing arts. The skills acquired and developed in drama lessons are both subject specific and life skills. Students will develop skills and build their knowledge in a wide range of theatrical elements considering the perspectives of different theatre makers: performers, designers and directors. Students will also work collaboratively to achieve creative outcomes, take risks and build confidence. We also aim to build an appreciation of Drama and theatre performance and its social, cultural and historical context. Students will study and practice work in a wide range of styles and explore theatre from different times and places.
Implementation
Drama at Woodroffe is rooted in practical activity that encourages students to develop their communication and problem-solving skills while increasing their understanding of themselves and the world around them. Students will make use of our excellent purpose-built Drama Studio, which is versatile for performance work and an inspiring space to work in for lessons. A’ level and GCSE exam performances take place in the drama studio where we have the facility to use theatrical lighting. In the past the space has been used for theatre-in-the-round, traverse and promenade performances to name but a few. Woodroffe also has a traditional school hall and stage which is used for our bi-annual whole school musical. We also have access to a dance studio with mirrors. We assess all the students at various points throughout the academic year. Students are regularly given the opportunity to self and peer assess, most lessons involve whole class and group discussion, group work, sharing of practical work and evaluation of some kind. Students are given feedback that sets appropriate targets and gives them the next steps to take. Summative assessments are made in line with the school reporting cycle.
Impact
Our students become excellent communicators of ideas, they solve problems creatively and make dramatic work in a range of styles creating impact for audiences. They are skillful performers and thoughtful storytellers. They are able to articulate their own thoughts and opinions as informed and knowledgeable members of an audience. They enjoy the process of creative collaboration, they can lead, listen and learn from their peers.
Years 7 – 9
The Year 7 Drama curriculum at Woodroffe provides a solid foundation for the study and practice of Theatrical Arts. There is a strong focus on building confidence and fostering curiosity and creativity through practical lessons. Students develop core skills in creating, performing and responding to Drama and each unit includes explicit teaching of key terminology to begin to build our students’ knowledge and understanding in the subject. There is a focus in Year 7 on theatre from different times and places to begin to equip students with a sense of how the theatre of today has been influenced by the theatre of the past. As part of our ongoing commitment to inclusion and diversity we have built into the curriculum opportunities for pupils to explore and discuss the issues of difference and disability through lessons looking at bullying. Our History of Theatre unit includes lessons exploring West African Griot storytelling, we also look at ancient Greek theatre and nineteenth century Melodrama. All of Year 7 will have the opportunity to experience live theatre with a trip to see a Pantomime at the end of the first term, a topic they will also study in class.
The Year 8 Drama curriculum at Woodroffe builds on the foundation of skills developed and knowledge taught in Year 7. There is a strong focus on developing confidence and encouraging creativity and risk taking in practical processes. In Year 8 pupils move on to exploring key extracts from a Shakespearean text. Students also devise their own original work around a theme using stimuli, developing work more independently and examining dramatic structure as part of storytelling. Built into the curriculum are opportunities for pupils to explore changing attitudes towards women in society (Macbeth) and we also work with extracts from Nigerian playwright Inua Ellams in our unit CAPE! Students also explore the play ‘Kindertransport’ by Dianne Samuels and study Commedia dell’Arte.
The Year 9 Drama curriculum aims to prepare students with the practical skills, knowledge and understanding of theatre needed to undertake the GCSE course. In our DNA unit students will learn how to answer short and medium exam style questions from the GCSE course and are taught basic principles of stage lighting and set design. Year 9 pupils at Woodroffe continue to broaden their skills and knowledge in a wide variety of practitioners/genres/styles. They study comedy, contemporary plays, devising theatre and the work of Bertolt Brecht. As part of our program of study students in year 9 will watch a live touring production from Theatre Centre.
Years 10 & 11
In Year 10 Drama students complete Component 1 of the GCSE course, an NEA unit that is centre marked and externally moderated. The first unit introduces key practitioners, styles and genres refreshing and extending skills and knowledge and forging a collaborative and cohesive new GCSE group. This prepares students for Component 1 which requires students to work in the style of a chosen style/genre or practitioner, devising in groups. Students in Year 10 also all see a piece of live theatre which they must evaluate and analyse. Key knowledge and terminology pertaining to the specific production is explicitly taught alongside this to enable students to form and articulate opinions about how meaning is created on stage as informed members of the audience. Students also refine performance skills in a Component 2 mock in which texts are selected by the teacher for individual groups designed to support and challenge all learners. Component 2 texts are audited to ensure represented playwrights are from a range of different backgrounds, ethnicities and genders. At the end of the year students are introduced to the GCSE set text in order to prepare them for study in Year 11. Throughout the year Do Now activities are used to conduct quick low stakes testing at the starts of lessons to allow teachers to see what key knowledge students have retained
The final year of GCSE Drama at Woodroffe draws together the skills, knowledge, understanding and key vocabulary, sequenced all the way from KS3 to ensure students have to tools to be successful in the course. By this point students will have worked with a range of texts, characters and styles receiving feedback to extend and develop performance skills. Students will have had the opportunity to see at least one piece of live theatre in each year at Woodroffe and will have studied a range of styles, practitioners, plays and conventions to comment thoughtfully on their experience as informed members of the audience in their exam. Students will:
- Study the set text practically through performing, rehearsing, directing and designing in preparation for the final written exam
- Refine writing skills using key terminology, giving detailed examples and forming their own opinions about meaning created through performance, direction and design.
- Watch a live piece of theatre and analyse and evaluate how different production elements are used to create meaning in preparation for the final written exam.
- Select and rehearse two extracts from a text to perform in a practical exam.
Years 12 & 13
We use the Pearson exam board for our A level Drama and Theatre Studies. This course demands practical, creative and communication skills. This is a rigorous A level where written and practical skills are needed and developed.
The course involves taking part in performances, devising and studying plays and playwrights. Currently we explore ‘Machinal’ by Sophie Treadwell, ‘Wise Children’ adapted by Emma Rice and ‘Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. We are also exploring the work of practitioners, The Paper Birds, Bertolt Brecht and Stanislavski.
Regular visits to the theatre are essential, students are expected to become independent theatre goers. There is a written exam at the end of the second year that is worth 40% of the A level grade.
A level Drama can lead to further study in Drama, Theatre Studies and Performing Arts in Higher Education at Degree level. Many university courses in other subjects value applicants with A level drama as it reflects a high standard achieved in what are sometimes called ‘employability skills’ also referred to as ‘soft skills’.
Rehearsals for exam work will sometimes take place at weekends, these are always arranged through negotiation with the group.
Alumni – we have had a student who went on to train as an actor/musician at Rose Bruford drama school and has worked successfully in the industry since. Another one of our successes was in ‘Gypsy’ with Imelda Staunton in the West End. We also have a student working for a television company (Outdoor Productions) as a Researcher and Production Coordinator. This year one of our students has started training at the Guildford School of Acting.
School Production
Working closely with the music department we stage a whole school musical every other year. Auditions are held in the autumn term and rehearsals start in the January for a performance week in the first week of July. We usually have between eighty and a hundred and twenty students involved either as performers, back stage crew, technical crew, set designers and makers or musicians. The textiles department always provide us with outstanding costumes. The production is an important event in school life and we always aim to make it a quality piece, we take it seriously and aim high. Students really value the experience of being involved both in terms of the skills and experience they acquire but also socially, as many friends are made across the year groups and great fun is had by all. It is hard work too of course!
- Romeo and Juliet 2024
- Annie 2022
- School of Rock – 2019
- The Little Shop of Horrors – 2017
- Grease – 2015
- Bugsy – 2013
- We Will Rock You – 2011
- The Wizard of Oz – 2009
- Return to the Forbidden Planet – 2007
- Little Shop of Horrors – 2005
- Oliver – 2003
Acting for Film Club
Local actor, director and lecturer, Bill Geraghty runs our Acting for Film Club for students in KS4 and KS5 where students learn to act in front of a camera and crew a production operating professional equipment. At the end of the project, we have a screening of all of the work created by students.
Year 7 Drama Club
At the start of the autumn, we run a drama club for the Year 7, twice a week after school just until the October half term. In this time, we create an ensemble performance lasting about ten minutes which is performed at the ‘Meet My Tutor’ evening towards the end of October, in front of a massive audience of Year 7 parents. There is always a large take-up for this and so we enlist the help of A’ level drama students. This provides an early opportunity for new students who enjoy the creative arts to get involved in something exciting and meaningful in their first half term at Woodroffe. Our last performance used a poem by Maya Angelou ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’.
Every year at the end of the autumn term all of the Year 7 with their tutors, co-tutors and year head are taken to watch a professional pantomime. We usually go to the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil. Year 7 spend the second half of the autumn term exploring the pantomime genre in their lessons, looking at for example, silent comedy and slapstick and so watching a pantomime is a great way to finish off this project.
Year 8 and 9 Drama
Clubs are also run at different times and on different themes and skills.
GCSE and A level
Exam work is rehearsed at lunch times and after school.
Other Opportunities
In the past we have taken part in the Shakespeare Schools Festival and NT Connections. We also always take up the offer of theatre practitioners coming in to run workshops with our students. Recently Told by an Idiot were performing ‘Heads Will Roll’ at The Marine Theatre and we were offered a free school workshop exploring the production and the style the company work in. Last year we were lucky enough to be offered a workshop from Splendid Theatre Company on Christopher Marlowe and Spendid’s Brechtian style of working.
Theatre Trips
We feel that it isn’t possible to develop into really successful drama students without regular trips to the theatre. We have a very positive relationship with our local theatre, The Marine, in Lyme Regis and regularly see interesting and wide ranging performances there. We also go to larger theatres in the South West such as The Theatre Royal, Plymouth, Bristol Old Vic and the Northcott, Exeter, where we recently saw ‘Malory Towers’ by Wise Children.’ We also go to London for experiences of for example, the West End where we saw ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ last year and The National Theatre. Theatre companies that we particularly admire and try and see, especially with our A’ level students are Theatre Alibi, Angel Exit, Splendid, Kneehigh, Frantic Assembly, Actors of Dionysus, Shared experience and Cheek by Jowl.
Theatre Centre visit us every year with a performance of their current production, they are an excellent theatre company, based in London, who always produce stimulating and inspiring theatre for young people. All our drama students from year 9 upwards watch the Theatre Centre productions and then we use that experience in drama lessons in all sorts of exciting ways.
