In Year 9, students will study the techniques and skills necessary to produce an effective stage performance. They will explore techniques such as tableaux, slow-motion, spontaneous and prepared improvisation, mime, mask, the performance of script (including Shakespeare), and, for our more advanced students, Stanislavskian acting techniques and stage fighting. They will also learn the discipline and focus that is necessary to produce a performance.

In Years 10 and 11, students study GCSE Drama and are entered for the Edexcel examination. The GCSE drama course tests the students’ performance skills as well as their ability to articulate creative decision making and evaluation in written coursework and a written examination. It involves the performance of devised work and 2 extracts from a play, a written examination response to the study of a full text, a written examination response to a play they have seen, and written coursework to accompany the devised performance piece. The students’ written responses in coursework and examination account for 62.5% of the qualification. The performance work accounts for 37.5%.

In the Sixth Form, students study A level Drama and Theatre Studies and are entered for the AQA examination.