Upton Hall School

GCSE DRAMA


The GCSE Drama course is now well established at Upton and we are sure that the course will be as popular and successful this year. The course has three broad aims, which encourage pupils to develop their skills in order to:

 

A: Use Drama as a means to express their feelings and ideas about a range of issues.

B: Develop an understanding of how a playwright expresses their ideas about a theme or topic and of ways of exploring a play on stage.

C: Have the opportunity of being involved in the performance of a play from an existing script or one they have created/or to be assessed on their skills in technical theatre.

 

The course is divided into two sections: Paper 1, Coursework (60%), and Paper 2 an externally assessed PRACTICAL EXAM (40%). A more detailed outline of these two areas is given below.

 

  Title Description
Section 1: (Paper 1) Coursework Completed by the end of Year 10 Drama Coursework (60%) Unit 1: Drama Exploration I Teacher assessed practical work supported by portfolio of documentary evidence This unit of coursework is concerned with the use of drama to explore ideas and issues in response to stimulus material selected from different times and cultures. Students have the opportunity to use drama forms to deepen their knowledge and understanding of an idea or issue and to communicate this understanding through the medium of drama.

The assessment activities for this unit are set and marked by the teacher within prescribed guidelines.

Completed by end of Christmas term Year 11 Unit 2: Drama Exploration II Teacher assessed practical work supported by a portfolio of documentary evidence. This unit of the coursework is concerned with the exploration of a play chosen by the centre. The purpose of this unit is to give students the knowledge and understanding of ways in which playwrights, performers, directors and designers use the medium of drama to communicate their ideas to an audience. The assessment activities for this unit are set and marked by the teacher within prescribed guidelines.
Section 2: (Paper 2) Practical Exam Completed May of Year 11

Drama Performance (40%) Externally assessed practical examination of ONE of these following options:

Option A: Devised Performance – or Option B: Performance Support – or

Option C: Scripted Performance

This paper is concerned with the skills required in drama to perform work to an audience. Students have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills as performers or in a theatre craft using an appropriate material as a stimulus for performance. For option C, the stimulus must be a play script.

The assessment activities for this paper are set by the teacher within prescribed guidelines and externally marked.

 

Core Subjects