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Drama at Crestwood College for Business and Enterprise

At Crestwood, Drama is taught as a discrete subject at Key Stage 3 and every student has one lesson a week. Students look at a variety of themes such as: Real Life Issues; Scripted Performance; Media; Theatre History and Characterisation. Through these units they develop their skills in the production of effective performances and credible sustained characters in a range of different theatre styles as well as the appropriate critical skills and subject specific vocabulary. Additionally, students develop social skills including co-operative attitudes, empathy and communication strategies.

This year has seen the introduction of new units of study based on theatre styles such as Melodrama, Physical Theatre and Mask work where there has been an expansion in department resources to support this work. The study of Masks in particular will be expanded in the coming year to be developed over several year groups and this will involve extra investment in properties and collaborative projects undertaken in conjunction with the Art department.

At GCSE students follow the Edexcel GCSE syllabus. The course is in three parts:

Improvisation from a given stimulus
Exploration of a set play and a live theatre visit
Creation of an extended improvisation for performance to an examiner OR a technical support portfolio

Most students will take the extended improvisation option for area 3 but students who show a flair for the technical aspects of the course will be allowed to choose their area of study, such as set design, making up or sound.

The coursework for GCSE Drama (areas 1 and 2) is worth 60% and consists of practical performance work and a written portfolio of evidence, (about 1000 words for each area). The final examination is a practical performance and is worth 40% of the final grade, or if they are taking the technical option it is a practical demonstration of their designs in front of an examiner.

An experiment in small scale performance in the Drama studio by GCSE students during the school day proved successful this year and will be expanded upon and integrated into the work of all year groups in some form, especially in Key Stage 4. Other GCSE work included a number of Theatre In Education projects based on Citizenship themes, which were devised by Year 10 students, and some of these were taken to local primary schools. This has been highlighted as an area for development. Additionally, as a mock examination, students put on public performances of devised work and this will form an ongoing feature of GCSE work in the future.

Options for exploring Technical Theatre will be expanded in the coming year to encompass other areas such as lighting and this will be integrated into units for all year groups allowing GCSE students a greater choice of options in this area.