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GCSE Drama

Curriculum overview for GCSE Drama 

Curriculum intent – the knowledge, understanding and skills that students will learn
Students will learn about a wide range of drama practitioners and genres. They will understand how to use the practitioner and genre techniques and how embed them into a piece of theatre. They will be able to create a piece of theatre from a choice of stimuli provided from the exam board. Students will develop their ability to perform from a scripted text. They will develop their ability to answer examination questions as an informed member of an audience on a live theatre performance through analysis and evaluation. Students will practically explore one performance texts to consider how performers, designers and directors’ ideas might be realised in performance and communicated to an audience. Students will be able to combine practitioner and textual knowledge and justify their ideas for a production concept for a contemporary audience. 

Curriculum implementation – teaching, learning and assessment strategies
Students will have a range of practical and theory lessons across the course. They will engage in teacher-led modelling and scaffolding of practitioner and performance techniques that they will then need to be embedding in their practical and theory work. There will be a mixture of rehearsal, student-led lessons and teacher-led lessons in order for students to develop a wide range of skills across the course. Assessment will be carried out across the course through practical lessons and performances of work they have done, and there will also be formal assessments on the written paper sections. The mixture of summative and formative assessments will allow teachers and students to gain an insight into attainment levels and progress made throughout the course. Students will study at least three vastly different texts as a whole across the course. They will attend and watch live theatre in order to gain a wider range of knowledge and appreciation of theatre.

Curriculum impact – intended outcomes for students 
Students will gain the ability to understand how theatre is created and performed, extending their appreciation of the different theatrical elements that make up Drama and Theatre to understand how each one comes together to create a performance. Students will learn a wide range of skills that can be further developed within A level Drama and Theatre, as well as transferable life skills which they can go on to use throughout their lives. 

Course overview for GCSE Drama 
Exam board: Eduqas - https://www.eduqas.co.uk/media/abtjz5rx/eduqas-gcse-drama-spec-from-2016-e-v4-25-10-2021.pdf
Coursework: NEA Assessment 

Component 1: Devising theatre                 
Part 1: Devised performance 
Part 2: Portfolio of supporting evidence
Part 3: Written evaluation

Component 2: Performing from a text            
Part 1: Performance of an extract from a text

Component 3: Interpreting theatre                 
Section A: Set text
Section B: Live theatre evaluation