Saint John's International School Bangkok, Thailand

Drama

Secondary Drama Aims
The place of drama in the school curriculum is to
promote self-expression

build self-confidence
promote self-expression
enhance creativity
encourage co-operation

Focus in lessons:
In practice, drama involves a whole host of activities, which contributes to students’ development. For example;

discussions
physical & mental games
simulation activities
physical, mental & vocal warm-up activities
trust activities
movement & dance work.

In drama, students may be involved in creating dramatic situations and evolving characters by exploring their situations and feelings, using improvisations to discover effective ways of communicating a dramatic story, experience dramatic situations at first hand and reflecting on how they would personally respond to the events. The characters being depicted, interact with each other during the process of making drama to discover how some situations may be perceived in different ways and regard the drama class as a laboratory for the dissection and investigation of human experience.

Teaching Ethos:
Within Drama, we believe in playing an active role. Our role is to;

Offer a range of resources that have dramatic potential.
Move the exploration on by offering new alternatives or helping the students find and keep a focus.
Ask questions which will challenge the students’ perceptions and intentions.
Sometimes play a central role within the developing drama in order to heighten the students’ felt experience and give them new situations to respond to in their playing of dramatic roles.
Interact with the class as a fellow researcher rather than directing the outcome

We are very fortunate here at St John’s as we have an excellent, large drama studio with its own lighting equipment, which is used for all drama teaching and we also have an Activity Hall with full sound and lighting equipment for large school productions.

Topics covered at KS3:

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At KS3 students have a practical assessment every half term. Also, each term they are assessed on preparation, whether that be practical, written (script) or drawn (storyboard) and on evaluating practical work, again either in a written form or verbally.

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Topics covered at KS4:
At KS4, we follow the Edexcel GCSE syllabus, which is broken down as follows:

The 60% coursework part of the GCSE Drama course consists of practical work and a written notebook of evidence. During the course students will take part in 2 different workshops that will be marked by the teacher. In one of the workshops students will use all that they have learnt about Drama to explore responses to a range of material presented by the teacher.

In the other workshop you will explore a play and show your understanding of Drama by taking part in a number of exercises based on the play. Students will be assessed on practical work and on the supporting notes you keep during the workshops.
The examination for GCSE Drama is a practical performance. The examination is 40% of the marks. Students will take part in a play that has been created as a group or rehearsed from a script.

Students will be examined on acting skills in the performance. The play will be performed in front of an audience and the examiner will be present at one of the performances.

Extra-curricular Activities
Each year Saint John’s International Secondary School presents a production. Past productions have included Annie, Cinderella, Bugsy Malone, Return to the Forbidden Planet, Grease, Guys & Dolls and The Sound of Music.