Curriculum
Intent
The performing arts department at Rainford High seeks to foster all students’ creativity and cultural awareness by facilitating exploration in a wide variety of practical ways through an accessible and inclusive curriculum. At all key stages we aim to challenge students to look beyond their existing views and cultural awareness by experiencing live and recorded performances from artists in all genres, from the past and present and from different cultures. We believe a robust performing arts curriculum is a crucial part of our students’ experience at Rainford as it contributes significantly to preparing them for life as fully rounded members of the wider community.
In Drama, we aim for all students to explore their creativity through movement and speech. Students are able to delve deeper into social issues and diversity through role-play and so develop an understanding of the world around them.
Implementation
All students are taught Drama once a week at Key Stage 3. The curriculum is divided into six units per year and these are designed to develop students’ drama skills, knowledge and understanding in a cyclical way. Over the key stage, students are introduced to the techniques of devising, thought tracking, mime and interpreting scripts. As the curriculum develops, these skills are revisited within increasingly challenging contexts addressing both social and moral issues and themes. Students are encouraged to work in groups with their peers, to share and structure their ideas, to perform and be an active member of an audience, skills which are a key part of all lessons, resulting in an atmosphere of mutual respect and celebration of work. We encourage resilience and determination whilst creating a safe environment where students can take risks in their learning. All work is recorded allowing students to watch back, analyse and evaluate their own work and that of others.
Drama and Performing Arts is taught at Key Stage 4 and 5 where students follow rigorous practical courses offering clear pathways to higher education opportunities in academic, vocational and performance based courses.
Rainford has a full and varied Drama and Performing Arts extra-curricular offer including our annual school production and Drama clubs. The curriculum is further enhanced by regular trips to the theatre at Key Stages 4 and 5 and work with visiting drama and performing arts professionals.
Impact
We aim to deliver a wide ranging curriculum which enables all students to thrive, develop in confidence and celebrate their work and that of others. Students should make outstanding progress relative to their starting points when they join Rainford and, as they progress on their Drama and Performing Arts journey through the school, we aim to foster a lifelong appreciation and love of Drama and the arts.
For those students studying at Key Stage 4 and 5, we will equip them with the skills, knowledge and understanding to progress to higher education performance courses should they wish, but regardless of future career pathways, Drama and Performing Arts will develop our students into creative, articulate, thoughtful, empathetic, resourceful, resilient and confident members of society.
Possible careers and opportunities
Studying Drama provides pupils with a breadth of transferrable skills that will equip them for a variety of careers in an increasingly competitive jobs market. These skills would be ideal for pupils who are considering careers in the following sectors: Performing Arts, journalism, education, Public Relations, Health Service in particular Drama-therapy.
Facilities
We have three modern and well equipped Drama studios dedicated to Drama Two in the North Block, both having lighting and sound boards and one in the College.
Support
As a department we offer various levels of support to pupils including 1-to-1 intervention, after school revision classes and holiday sessions to prepare pupils for their GCSE examinations. Moreover, all key information resources, Knowledge Organiser have all been placed on Google Classroom to support your child’s learning.
Extra-Curricular
The drama and performing arts department offer various opportunities for pupils to pursue their passion for the subject outside of lessons. This has included the Shakespeare festival club in which students have learned and rehearsed a Shakespeare text for the national Schools’ Shakespeare festival and performed it at a professional theatre. The group has also performed throughout the year for various other audiences including for the students on transition day. As well as this, students have the opportunity to be a part of the annual school production, performing q range of works such as ‘Oliver’, ‘Guys and Dolls’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’. The performing arts department also facilitate many educational trips to the theatre for Key Stage 4 and 5 students.
KS3 Reading Homework
“The more that you read the more that you will know the more that you learn the more places you will go.”
The ability to read is a fundamental skill and to be able to read with confidence is very important. KS3 students will be asked to read 12 articles per year per subject through homework set by subject teachers. They will be asked to take a short quiz after each article to check their comprehension of what they have read.