Vision Statement
The vision of the Drama department, is aligned with the schools vision, which is to aim to be the best Drama department in the country.
Furthermore, our vision and aim for the Drama department is for every child to experience outstanding lessons, whereby they can participate at any level and feel valued, developed and grow in confidence. The Drama department will provide enrichment opportunities which challenge learners to move beyond their comfort zone as well as open up new world’s of creativity and diversity. Every student will have the opportunity to perform in lessons as either an actor or part of the production team and watch at least one piece of professional theatre during their education at St Romeros.
The Team
Mrs T Gladman – Head of Performing Arts / Teacher of Drama
Intent
The Drama department’s intent at St Oscar Romero’s is to create an inclusive, well-received and exciting subject offering all students a warm welcome and wealth of opportunity. Units of work are designed to engage all learners and promote a passion for the arts both in and out of school. We aim to deliver a rich curriculum in lessons as well as an extensive extra-curricular programme to include school productions, drama and dance clubs, live theatre, performances both within the school and in the outer community and masterclasses in both the technical and production areas of performing arts. Our intent within all lessons is to nurture students’ communication, creativity, problem solving, independent and resilience skills.
Implementation
All students in Key Stage three receive one lesson a week of drama which forms part of a broad and balanced curriculum. Schemes of work are designed for progressive challenge following a structured pathway that is rooted in text, technical skill and collaboration. Schemes are planned departmentally and are always under scrutiny to provide all students with the current pedagogical practice.
At Key Stage four students embark upon a GCSE in drama providing them with the opportunity to act, or realise set design, costume design, sound and lighting design. It is our firm belief that we offer all of these pathways to our students. There is an increased responsibility upon the learner to organise and attend their own rehearsals and self-manage their time thereby developing an important life skill.
We foster a love of live theatre through our department library, regular drama clubs, school productions, theatre visits, competitions and independent learning.
Impact
As a result of the quality of the curriculum and teaching and learning in Drama, we are proud to celebrate that students receive a truly outstanding education in our subject. Our GCSE results are consistently in the top 5% of the country with a broad range of dramatic and analytical skills fully developed by our learners. Our results over time are illustrated in the table below.
| % 4 (standard pass) | % 5 (strong pass) | Progress 8 | Attainment 8 | |
| 2019 | 100% | 85% | 1.17 | 5.8 |
| 2020 | 98% | 88% | N/A | 6.4 |
| 2021 | 100% | 95% | N/A | 6.9 |
| 2022 | 100% | 100% | +1.72 | 6.7 |
| 2023 | 100% | 91.67% | +1.36 | 6.17 |
In addition to the outcomes above we delight in seeing the development of communication skills, stage presence and confidence of all our learners, who make outstanding progress in drama. Once going out into the wider community our learners regularly feed back to us the love they had for drama, in particular the fondness for their work, school productions, arts award performances and the relationships built with peers within the drama classroom.
Many students move on to FE and HE at Northbrook college who offer an extensive range of courses for performing arts as well as a variety of other performing arts schools in the wider area. We have a range of past students working in the profession both on stage and behind the scenes. As importantly, past students have commented that the skills gained in the Drama classroom have given them confidence in day to day life and exercises such as interviews.
Inspiration
Students are inspired to see drama and performance in a more rounded way, this is supported and upheld through homework tasks, industry visits and connections as well as subject specific taster days.
- The school’s amphitheatre provides students with exciting and engaging outdoor learning experiences.
- Theatre trips and online theatrical experiences are at the heart of the department’s vision for all students with trips available to every year group throughout the academic year.
- The extra curricular within the arts inspires students to experience a variety of theatrical roles including: performers, technicians, set, sound, lighting and costume designers, as well as stage management. This supports Pillars of Possibility 8 and invites students to develop their skills further.
- FE and HE support is on hand within the department. Students are inspired by the passionate pedagogic delivery they receive from their teachers, both of whom have worked professionally within the industry and continue to work in their local communities within the industry.
