The City School

 

Aims

 

Drama at The City School is a creative subject that helps your child to express their feelings and build their confidence.  It has 4 main aspects that combine to help your child to learn and develop.

 

Enjoyment

 

The first focus of all Drama lessons is on having fun.  We know that children achieve the best results when they want to be in lessons.  We benefit from being an active subject that allows children to express themselves physically and verbally.  Drama lessons are built around letting the student enjoy what they and others can do and provide them with opportunities to achieve in ways that they find fun and exciting.

 

Imagination & Creativity

 

Part of having fun is asking the students to be creative and use their imagination.  Opportunities are provided in lessons for students to explore different people, places or situations; create unusual or different stories and amaze the audience with their ideas.  The answer to the question, often posed by students, of: ‘Can we do ‘it’ this way?’ is always ‘yes’: express yourself your way and show us what you think!

 

Groupwork & Co-operation

 

Unlike most subjects, Drama is predominantly student led and worked in groups.  This puts a lot of pressure on students not just to be creative but to learn to work with people they might not usually work with and might not agree on everything with.  The focus on allowing the children to learn independently and to develop skills such as compromise and co-operation will help your child in many other areas of life too! 

 

Confidence building

 

There is little that is scarier than having to stand up in front of an audience and speak.  We in the Drama Department understand that some students find this terrifying, and all students can get nervous at time – we work with your daughter or son to overcome their fears and build their confidence – lessons build up from Year Seven, when students are learning to give their opinions in small friendship groups, to Year Eleven, where they must be ready to perform in front of audiences they have never seen before.

 

Opportunities

 

Increasingly in the Drama Department we are looking to use new technologies including digital editing of filmed performances and software packages to present work in imaginative and exciting ways. 

All students study Drama for 1 lesson a week at Key Stage 3 and can then choose to select it as an option subject at Key Stage 4, which leads to a GCSE qualification.  Here the courser is split into 2 pieces of practical coursework in lesson time and a final performance exam in front of a visiting examiner.