CHRISTOPHER WHITEHEAD
LANGUAGE COLLEGE AND SIXTH FORM
Welcome to Drama
Miss M Dufty
Subject leader for Performing Arts
Teacher of Drama
- m.dufty@cwlc.email
Mr D Kent
- d.kent@cwlc.email
Drama at CWLC is a subject that encourages students to develop their personalities, teamwork, resilience, initiative- and most importantly have fun!
Students learn the history of theatre, the key features of differing genres, the work of theatre practitioners and also develop the practical skills and discipline necessary for performing. Students are offered a wide range of extra- curricular opportunities including trips, workshops, school shows, our student director project and our highly successful Youth Theatre. Throughout their time with the Performing Arts department, students will be encouraged to join in and get involved either as performers, designers, directors, stage managers or backstage. We work hard to ensure that we find an individual path for students, according to their interests, abilities and needs.
The skills learnt in Drama are not only applicable to performing- they support our students academically in all other subjects and their own personal development- allowing them to grow in confidence, resilience, hard work and working with others to achieve a goal. The Drama Department are keen contributors to our school community and can be found at most events. Our students develop in areas of public speaking, emotional intelligence and energetic initiative- all skills that are highly sought by employers and further education.
All lessons take place in our large rehearsal studio or our Studio Theatre.
At KS3 students will develop their skills in a wide variety of different areas. These include devising drama as well as working with scripts and also mask work. Each term sees the students learning a historical style, genre or practitioner. At KS3 these include Commedia dell’arte, Social Drama, Theatre in Education, Pantomime and Outdoor Shakespeare.
The main emphasis of this Key Stage is to instil a love of performance as well as to develop confidence, team working skills and resilience. Students will be expected to learn lines for each of their scripted elements and will be encouraged to participate in our extra-curricular opportunities as either a performer, director, designer or crew member. Students will be assessed for the effort and focus that they display throughout the units of work.
At Key Stage 4, we offer the Edexcel BTEC Technical Award Level 1/2 in Performing Arts. The two year qualification is made up of components that are assessed entirely through practical work and coursework. The structure of the course is modular, made up of three components that cover learning about practitioners, exploring and analysing pieces of live theatre, performing scripted work and creating pieces of devised drama from a given stimulus. The course is delivered almost entirely through practical sessions, with coursework hand in deadlines and performances spread equally through the year, allowing students to get support, bank grades early and not have that final ‘rush’ to revise for exams.
The course will allow students to gain in confidence and get a flavour for the work that takes place within the performing arts industry; a great stepping stone for those wishing to pursue performing arts beyond Key Stage 4.
Each year, the department produce a main stage musical with help from the Dance and Music departments. All year groups are encouraged to take part and rehearsals are fun, with students mixing and making new friends. Many of our Year 7 who start out in small parts go on to take larger and larger parts as the years progress. We have excellent links with The Swan Theatre, The University of Worcester and our lovely local theatre company, Vamos. We are a very active department and offer many trips, workshops and performing experiences. We enjoy being part of the school community and the drama department can often be found helping or performing at most school events. We have a department Instagram page where you can keep up with our exploits! Drama at CWLC is about more than acting- get involved, get happy and do all of those fun things you’ll remember about school in the years to come!
