Drama
Ash Manor School has a thriving Drama department that aims to challenge and stretch our students’ as performers as well as individuals. Drama is a powerful tool that helps students understand the world they live in whilst nurturing their self-confidence, creativity and communication skills. With the Ash Manor Core Values of Community, Excellence, Integrity, Respect and Resilience embedded within the teaching and learning of Performing Arts, and our students are given the opportunity to develop their own aspirations as performers through an engaging and varied curriculum.
Key Stage 3 Curriculum information
At KS3 we aim to introduce students to a wide range of acting styles and genres, exploring both script and devising work that aims to stimulate, educate and inspire. Drama is compulsory at Ash Manor with students participating in 100 minutes of learning a fortnight, exploring topics such as Greek Theatre, Melodrama and Commedia De’ll Arte, as well as scripts such as Blood Brothers by Willy Russell and Shakespeare. Within each scheme of work, students are introduced to a full range of rehearsal and performance techniques such as characterisation, mime and mask work.
In Year 9, students can opt to take specialise in Drama with 100 minutes of learning a week, where they to begin to build the foundations for a BTEC Performing Arts. In this year, students start to develop acting and interpretive skills, examining influential Theatre Practitioners when exploring different acting styles and genres. Students explore a wide range of styles of theatre including Physical Theatre, Naturalism, and Theatre in Education through the study of plays including Blackout by Davey Anderson and Hard to Swallow by Mark Wheeler.
Key Stage 4 Curriculum information
At KS4 Drama is a popular subject with our students following the Edexcel BTEC Tech Award in Performing Arts. Students have 300 minutes of learning per fortnight and as well as the opportunity to attend live theatre events in local theatres and the West End as part of their studies.
The BTEC Tech Award in Performing Arts focuses on the practical aspects of theatre, with students analysing a wide variety of rehearsal and performance techniques to reflect and improve their skills as actor, as well as developing their understanding of the purpose and intentions of theatre. Students will study different theatre practitioners through practical workshops, analysing live theatre and the rehearsal and performance of scripts. Students will devise a piece of theatre to a brief, set by the exam board.
The course is made up of three components;
Component 1: Exploring the Performing Arts (30%)
Component 2: Developing Skills and Techniques in the Performing Arts (30%)
Component 3: Performing to a Brief (40%)
Essential trips and visits
Theatre trips to see at least one live Theatre Production for Component 1
Careers in Drama
Actor, Director, Playwright, Theatre Designer, Producer, TV/Radio Presenter, Drama Teacher
Key Stage 3 Curriculum information
At KS3 we aim to introduce students to a wide range of acting styles and genres, exploring both script and devising work that aims to stimulate, educate and inspire. Drama is compulsory at Ash Manor with students participating in 100 minutes of learning a fortnight, exploring topics such as Greek Theatre, Melodrama and Commedia De’ll Arte, as well as scripts such as Blood Brothers by Willy Russell and Shakespeare. Within each scheme of work, students are introduced to a full range of rehearsal and performance techniques such as characterisation, mime and mask work.
In Year 9, students can opt to take specialise in Drama with 100 minutes of learning a week, where they to begin to build the foundations for a BTEC Performing Arts. In this year, students start to develop acting and interpretive skills, examining influential Theatre Practitioners when exploring different acting styles and genres. Students explore a wide range of styles of theatre including Physical Theatre, Naturalism, and Theatre in Education through the study of plays including Blackout by Davey Anderson and Hard to Swallow by Mark Wheeler.
Key Stage 4 Curriculum information
At KS4 Drama is a popular subject with our students following the Edexcel BTEC Tech Award in Performing Arts. Students have 300 minutes of learning per fortnight and as well as the opportunity to attend live theatre events in local theatres and the West End as part of their studies.
The BTEC Tech Award in Performing Arts focuses on the practical aspects of theatre, with students analysing a wide variety of rehearsal and performance techniques to reflect and improve their skills as actor, as well as developing their understanding of the purpose and intentions of theatre. Students will study different theatre practitioners through practical workshops, analysing live theatre and the rehearsal and performance of scripts. Students will devise a piece of theatre to a brief, set by the exam board.
The course is made up of three components;
Component 1: Exploring the Performing Arts (30%)
- Examine professional practitioners’ performance work
- Explore the interrelationships between constituent features of existing performance material.
Component 2: Developing Skills and Techniques in the Performing Arts (30%)
- Develop skills and techniques for performance
- Apply skills and techniques in rehearsal and performance
- Review own development and performance.
Component 3: Performing to a Brief (40%)
- Create and develop a performance from a stimulus
Essential trips and visits
Theatre trips to see at least one live Theatre Production for Component 1
Careers in Drama
Actor, Director, Playwright, Theatre Designer, Producer, TV/Radio Presenter, Drama Teacher
