Year 7, 8 and 9 students have one lesson of Drama a week and take part in a performance assessment every half term (Year 7 and 8) or term (Year 9).

In Year 7 Drama is used to teach students PSCHE topics to help them settle into their new school and develop as learners and citizens. We cover these via the study of Drama from Ancient Greece to medieval Morality Plays, Circus Skills and Theatre in education.

In Year 8 students explore Drama skills and techniques thorough extended topics such as Bullying and Sweeney Todd. Students also study and perform extracts from two plays: Alan Ayckbourn’s Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations and Mark Wheeller’s Chicken!.

In Year 9 students complete a mock version of the GCSE Drama practical work. They create their own devised performance inspired by the Stephen Lawrence case using Naturalistic, Epic and Physical Theatre techniques. They also study and perform an extract from Blood Brothers by Willy Russell and explore the world of mask performance.

In Years 8 and 9 students are given knowledge organisers containing all of the information they are expected to learn over the course of the year. Every week their HW is to self-quiz using these knowledge organisers and every lesson begins with a low-stakes quiz.

The best performances from key stage three are staged at Arts Evening every July.