The clear vision for our three departments is to create and/or foster lifelong interest in, and passion for Performing Arts. Through distinct learning in each specialism and an enhanced collaborative programme, we seek to allow pupils to unleash their creativity and discover personal interest and joy in all three areas. We seek to raise their ambition for their future, whether specifically within the Performing Arts industry or not, and do so through an extensive programme through and beyond the curriculum. We embed the whole school’s curriculum intent, through the implementation of the three school principles.
| Globally Diverse | Ambitious for the Future | Inquisitive Learners |
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We support our students in becoming globally diverse through: 1) their own personal development by … - Supporting their confidence in exploring their interests and talents. - Developing their technical, physical and expressive skills. - Building physical and mental strength. 2) their understanding of the world by … - Exploring a diverse and varied array of practitioners’ work/styles/genres. - Fostering an appreciation for the Performing Arts, and a strong awareness for its cultural benefits. - Promoting respect, inclusivity and open-mindedness. - Ensuring our engagement with topics/issues/ are current and relevant. |
We encourage our students to be ambitious for their future by: - Developing them as all round performers: skilful, committed & creative. - Encouraging effective learner habits, such as independence, resilience and reflectiveness. - Enabling them to become confident communicators, capable leaders and risk takers. - Supporting their artistic and cultural literacy. - Providing opportunities to communicate ideas, views, messages and intentions expressively. - Providing a wider variety of real life experiences including, performances, visits, practitioners etc. - Encouraging regular self evaluations: assessing success and areas for development. |
We foster students becoming an inquisitive learners by: - Creating SoL that develops a wealth of life long and transferable skills including, performance, composition, analysis. - Promoting important personal traits such as positivity, resilience, team work, motivation, enthusiasm, collaboration, cooperation, organisation and discipline (through rehearsals and performance). - Providing a comprehensive understanding of the three disciplines, both practically and theoretically, to ensure artist literacy for the future. - Inspiring pupils to take opportunities within PA (within school and beyond). - Encouraging engagement in creative expression, creative intention and the purpose of all three disciplines. - Developing a love of performing arts and engagement with cultural capital. |
In Key Stage 3 there are constant opportunities for students to discover passions for performance through both the curriculum and beyond. This is driven by our own passion for our subjects, our collaborative working ethos and our focus on achieving high end products. e.g. recording contemporary solo performances in ance. Opportunities for reading are taken regularly, and oracy is developed consistently through discussions and performances e.g. pitching spy gadgets in Drama. Digital literacy is taught through the use of ICT in Drama assessments and production software in music. Extracurricular opportunities are wide and varied, including performances, shows, visits, and regularly utilising industry practitioners.
Core skills in the Performing Arts disciplines of Drama, Dance and Music, give every child the opportunity to discover the subject for themselves through performance, composition and analysis within and beyond the classroom. Due to the practical nature of our subjects, students are constantly given power over the choices they make, preparing them fully for life beyond school. The skills we foster as an integral part of our curriculum include oracy, confidence, reflection, evaluation, communication, cooperation and problem solving. Theoretical learning supports pupil literacy, numeracy and digital literacy. KS3 intent is based on skills needed for KS4, thus providing excellent preparation for those courses.
We focus on developing self confidence and pride, through the regular creation of performance work and composition in all three disciplines. We also focus on being principled and caring - this may include being an excellent audience, appreciating peers’ performance work and learning how to give supportive feedforward. We develop debating and exploration of views (expressing and listening) regularly through the historical and current range of topics issues e.g. the cultural background of musical genres. There is also a strong focus on diversity and inclusion - these have always been an integral part of our subjects, and continue to be embraced e.g. through the discussion of characters within Shrek the Musical. We also explore school and community awareness through our extra curricular projects and performances.
In Key Stage 4, students are given the opportunity to study GCSE Dance, BTEC L2 Tech Award in Music and WJEC Performing Arts.
Due to the nature of key stage 4 courses, more demand is placed on students to increase their level of depth, precision and skill level. Aspirations are therefore even higher for these students and further opportunities reflect this e.g. increased participation in shows/productions. Here students are required to build on the foundations of key stage 3 to become more specialised in these skills stated above. This enables them to meet the demands of their courses e.g. producing musical covers in a different genre, creating a piece of choreography with a clear choreographic intention or devising a performing arts piece based on the exam brief’s stimulus. Ultimately the demands for these practical skills and creativity provide an excellent foundation for lifelong learning.
We focus on increasing the level of professionalism of these standards, and increasing pupil led learning and the proficiency of skills. We also focus on increasing opportunities for experiencing PA within real life situations, including high quality practitioners and different venues (thus also allowing comparison of their growing skill set against realistic industry norms.)
In Dance: Professional works cover topics such as the Holocaust, 7/7 Bombings, diverse dancers, Brazilian culture, the freedom to express oneself. Pupil choreography covers an array of current topics dependent on the set stimuli.
In Performing Arts : Professional works consider alcohol and sexual assault in The Paper Birds ‘Thirsty’, prejudice in ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ and celebrityhood in ‘Chicago’. Devising is led by the students themselves, e.g. Pride Verbatim project.
In Music: We develop appreciation of a wide range of musical genres, their history and context, both practically and theoretically.
