Drama Department

At Barking Abbey School, Drama is seen as a practical arts subject that is taught within its own right, as it has a set of skills, methods and practices that are peculiar to the discipline. The teaching of Drama, should not be purely theatre-arts based, even though it may offer professional skills, important within its teaching is that it can offer a great deal to pupils with different abilities and expectations. Therefore the department believes that Drama in school should be a mixture of learning through the medium and learning about the medium.

Staff Members

We currently have 3 fulltime members of staff. As well as their teaching duties drama staff members also supervise school productions, drama clubs and educational visits.

Aims

• To help pupils develop an awareness of self, a response to others and an ability to make sense of their environment.
• To promote the appreciation of the values and attitudes of their own and of different communities and cultures.
• To promote enquiry and discovery through creative activity.
• To contribute to the creative development of each pupil.
• To aid the development of each pupils speaking and listening skills.
• To contribute to the language development, both oral and written, of each pupil.
• To enable each pupil to become familiar with the technical language of the subject.
• To develop and refine physical and verbal Drama skills, enabling pupils to express themselves through a variety of dramatic forms.
• To develop pupils abilities to reflect on and evaluate drama work.
• To enable each student to experience a sense of achievement and enjoymet in Drama
• To appreciate and understand Drama as an art form.
• To give vocational guidance if necessary.
  
  

To meet these aims we follow an Enrichment Policy which includes a number of activities:

• The department has an open access approach to the use of Drama facilities by students
• Drama clubs are considered an important element of the department’s activities.
• We aim to stage 1 major production a year in addition to students work.
• Students, doing examination courses, have the opportunities to see 2/3 shows per year.
• Showcases allow students to perform work which has required time and effort to produce.
• Drama residential giving students a taste of working in a theatrical environment.