At Moorside High School we aim for a Drama curriculum which inspires creativity, empathy and self-belief. We aim to deliver vibrant and exciting lessons delivered by teachers who are passionate about the Performing Arts. We want our students to leave our lessons not only with a deeper understanding of Drama, but with a deeper understanding of themselves.

We have designed our curriculum so that it embeds skills and knowledge of the theatre and performance process along with a plethora of transferable skills which underpin successful Drama. We encourage discussion and debate surrounding a wide range of relevant, current and local subject matters and use these as stimulus to devise creative and imaginative pieces of work. Pupils are encouraged to put themselves in other people’s shoes and consider social, cultural and historical view-points which differ from their own. This develops their cultural awareness, understanding of British values and consideration of their own unique position within society but also within the wider world. In turn, students are therefore developing their consideration towards others and exploring their understanding and real-life experiences of equality.

The Drama curriculum is an amalgamation of both practical and theory work. Work is explored initially practically, developing student’s skills and knowledge using a ‘hands-on’ approach which is accessible for all. Learning is then embedded with written skills which allow students to analyse and evaluate performance, effectively use subject specific language and analyse characters, plot and genre. Feedback for all work is regular, timely and purposeful, ensuring that students have ample opportunity to act on this feedback and improve their work giving students the opportunity to demonstrate aspiration and resilience. 

The spiral KS3 curriculum allows concepts to be introduced in year 7 and then presented repeatedly throughout the curriculum but with additional layers of complexity and in different approaches. Each year in KS3 the students will study devised drama, scripts and live theatre. The content, techniques and skills studied in each scheme will differ, but the core concept stays the same. This then leads into the GCSE curriculum where these concepts are developed and embedded even further in line with the exam specification.

In addition to lesson time, the Drama department at Moorside High school aims to provide students with suitable and regular theatre visits to experience professional theatre. We also work closely with professional theatres and theatre companies and often have workshops both in and out of school from companies such as The Lowry Theatre and The National Theatre. We encourage students to support and contribute to the department and the wider school by joining Drama clubs, representing the department in open evenings and taking part in school shows and performance evenings. We encourage cross-curricular links particularly with other subjects within Expressive Arts such as Music and Art, but also within the wider school community for example History and English.

We support our students in continuing with their learning journey at KS5 and beyond. A large number of our students go on to study Drama or the Performing Arts and we have good links with local colleges and universities. It is particularly rewarding to take time to attend performances in which prior students are performing. Whether or not students go onto study Drama in further education, we are confident that having studied Drama at Moorside High School we have enriched the lives of the students and helped to inspire their aspirations moving forwards.

Curriculum Overview