Drama is offered at Key Stage 4 through practical and theoretical study. Students develop an understanding and enjoyment of drama, developing group and individual skills and studying ways to communicate ideas and feelings to an audience.
Following the Cambridge Drama syllabus (0411) they learn how to discover the performance possibilities of a text and other stimuli, and devise dramatic material of their own. Students also develop their performance skills, the demonstration of which will form part of their final assessment.
Students study stimuli such as short titles, poems, pictures, songs, historical events, stories, etc. They work in groups of between two and six performers to devise and perform a piece of drama based on one of the stimuli. In the written examination pupils reflect on and evaluate aspects of their practical work.
Each student submits a total of three pieces of practical work: one individual piece and two group pieces. Candidates have the opportunity to produce more than three pieces of practical work during the course so that there is a choice of pieces to submit and their best work may be selected.