Drama Key Stage 4: Years 10 & 11

Drama at K.S.4 builds on the key skills acquired at K.S.3. Students have 2 discreet lessons of Drama per week. The course has practical Drama activity at its core, teaching essential skills that can be utilised in many different careers and areas of life.

Students explore challenging and stimulating themes and situations, contributing their own ideas and opinions. They also learn essential performance skills to bring their ideas to life. Key Stage 4 G.C.S.E Drama builds a solid foundation for progression into A Level study.

Examination Structure (Edexcel board)
This course is a mixture of practical assessment.

• Paper 1
  2 sets of 10 assessed lessons, 1 in the Summer Term of Year 10 and 1 in the Autumn Term of Year 11.
  This makes up 60% of the assessment. There are no written exams.

Each set of assessed lessons generates 3 pieces of written coursework based on the themes explored practically – 6 in total.

• Paper 2
  Practical Performance in front of an external examiner. Students have 8-10 weeks to devise and rehearse a piece of Drama in groups to be performed to and marked by examiner.
  This makes up 40% of the assessment. There are no written exams.

Years 10 & 11

Programme of study:
During the 2 years of the course, students will be introduced to:

• Explorative Strategies, eg. Still image, thought-tracking, narration
• The Drama Medium, eg. Use of voice, movement, sound & lighting
• The Elements of Drama, eg. Action, plot, contrasts, characterisation
• Drama Text, eg. Stimulus material including – scripts, music,
  poetry and newspaper articles

Topics:

Autumn Term
Drama basics – skills revisited
Runaway Parents – one boys search to find his parents
Young Offenders – the consequences of becoming involved in crime

Spring Term
The Outsider – students write their own scripts based on Bullying
Forum Theatre – students solve a dilemma by taking over the action

Summer term
Hitting Home – exploring domestic violence
‘Whose Life is It Anyway?’ – G.C.S.E Paper 1, Unit 2 Assessed lessons and coursework

Year 11

Autumn Term
Skills Revisited
‘Oppression’ – G.C.S.E Paper 1 Unit 1 Assessed lessons & coursework

Spring Term
Devising & Rehearsal – G.C.S.E Paper 2

Summer Term
Examination Performance – G.C.S.E Paper 2