Assessment begins during the summer term of Year 10. Students take part in a six hour workshop which is concerned with the use of drama to explore ideas and issues in response to stimulus material selected from different times and cultures. This work is supported by the completion of a portfolio.
In the autumn term of Year 11, a second six hour workshop concentrates on a play script. Students gain knowledge and understanding of the ways in which playwrights, performers, directors and designers use the medium of drama to communicate their ideas to an audience. Again this work is supported by the completion of a portfolio. The two workshop sessions represent 60% of the final GCSE.
Immediately at the beginning of spring term, students begin work on selecting the material which they will use to create a group performance. In this they use all their skills and work in group sizes of between three and nine. The performance represents 40% of the final GCSE and will be assessed by an external examiner later in the term. Drama GCSE is completed usually by the end of April.
For AS and A2, students follow the AQA ‘Drama and Theatre Studies’ course. Students gain a practical awareness of theatre as a process, of the relationship between text and its performance potential, and the work of the actor, director and designer.
Students study plays and practitioners who were influential in the development of theatrical communication. They see a variety of theatrical productions and they both devise their own theatrical performance and perform a scripted play. Students are also expected to participate in public performances.
Assessment is on practical performance, which represents 40%, and two written papers, which represent 60%. |
