Expressive & Performing Arts
In the Expressive & Performing Arts Faculty students will learn how to communicate and empathise with each other. They will develop creativity and thinking skills, learning how to solve problems, and how to maintain a healthy active lifestyle. Students will consider themselves and the world around them.
Years 7 & 8
Every student studies each of the faculty subject disciplines. The specific order of experiences may vary due to the availability of resources.
Drama - students explore a range of issues and ideas, as they develop skills within three key areas; Devising, Performing and Evaluating.
Music - a wide-ranging curriculum explores many different styles of music. Students play, sing, compose, listen to and discuss music.
Games – a broad and balanced range of sports and activities improves physical skills, creativity, Leadership, decision making, fitness and a healthy active lifestyle. The focus in Year 7 is on acquiring skills; in Year 8 on developing these skills and improving performance.
Drama
| Year 7 Drama |
- Character creation - Conflict: West side story - Evacuees |
| Year 8 Drama |
- Page to stage - Blood brothers - Let him have it |
| Year 9 Drama |
- Teechers - Practitioners - Theatre in education |
| Year 10 Drama |
- Introduction to devising - Component 1: Exploration - Component 1: Devising - Component 1: Devising portfolio - Component 3: An Inspector calls |
| Year 11 Drama |
- Component 2: Performance from Text - Component 3: An Inspector calls - Component 2: practical exam |
Music
| Year 7 Music |
- Elements of Music - Keyboard skills - Pictures (Composition) - Saharan sounds - Offbeat - Ukulele |
| Year 8 Music |
- All that jazz - Video game music - Hooks and riffs - Song writing - Samba |
| Year 9 Music |
- What makes a good song? - Dance music - 20th century music - Film music (composition project) - World music passport |
| Year 10 Music |
- MAD - Elements of music - Western classical traditions - Free choice composition - Music for ensemble - Set work: Toto Africa |
| Year 11 Music |
- Film music and brief compositions - Bach - Badinerie - Composition and performance |
| Year 12 Music |
- Development of the symphony - Background and context of set work: Haydn 104 - 1st movement: section analysis - 2nd movement: section analysis - Solo performance - Rock and pop - Musical theatre - Free choice composition |
| Year 13 Music |
- Revision of Haydn 104 - 3rd Movement analysis - 4th Movement analysis - Twentieth century: Debussy - Twentieth century: Poulenc - Mendelssohn No 4 |
Games/ PE
| Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Games |
- Competitive Games, Dance - Competitive Games, Gymnastics - Heath related fitness, Athletics - Competitive Games, Racket sports - Striking Games, Athletics |
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| Year 10 PE |
- Skeleton and muscles - Cardio-respiratory - Sports psychology - Movement analysis, injury and drugs - Fitness and training |
- Netball - Hockey - Badminton - Football - Athletics - Cricket - Softball |
| Year 10 Games |
- Competitive Games - Racket sports - Individual performance - Health and fitness - Striking games - Athletics |
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| Year 11 PE |
- PEP: Evaluation - Health - Diet - Sport, society and culture |
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| Year 11 Games |
- Competitive Games - Racket sports - Individual performance - Health and fitness - Striking games |
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| Year 12 PE |
- Muscular Skeletal - Cardio-respiratory - Neuro- muscular - Sport psychology - Coach and performer: classification of skills - learning theories and practices |
- Diet and Nutrition - Preparation and training methods - Practical video prep - Memory models - Energy systems and recovery - Injury |
| Year 13 PE |
- Sports psychology - History and social influence of sport - Media and Commercialisation - Modern sport, ethics and deviance in sport - Memory models - Muscular skeletal mechanics |
- Injury - Development routes, participation and health - Ethics - Angular motion - Projectile motion, fluid mechanics - Practical video |
Years 10 & 11
Subject disciplines are offered to all students within the GCSE Options process. Each discipline in the Expressive and Performing Arts faculty provides increased challenge with time to develop personal responses alongside knowledge and skills.
Games remains part of the core curriculum for all students. They will develop their technique and improve their performance in other competitive sports or non-competitive physical activities. In year 9 students concentrate on using tactics and strategy to improve performance. The Games curriculum in Years 10 & 11 develops a lifelong involvement in sport, maintaining health and fitness. Students encounter a range of sports and activities in rotation over time.
Drama – all students explore a range of ideas and texts as makers and performers. Students work collaboratively to develop ideas and communicate meaning. As the curriculum develops students become more confident in their use of different dramatic conventions, forms and techniques.
Music – the curriculum explores a wide range of music from a variety of cultures and genres. Students experience these different aspects of the discipline through the common areas of Performing, Composing and Appraising.
PE - students study the theory behind health and performance and how fitness impacts on the different body systems. Working in practical and theory sessions, students will develop and apply their knowledge of topics including applied anatomy, sports psychology, socio-cultural influences and physical training.
Years 12 & 13
The Expressive and Performing Arts faculty offers three disciplines for further study in the Sixth Form. There is an increase in challenge, complexity and content, as students become more knowledgeable and skilful.
Drama – Students will build on their previous learning about Theatre; exploring a range of play texts and significant theatre makers. The curriculum is focused on building understanding through a practical approach. Students will develop their own responses, and their ability to use dramatic form, style and conventions to communicate ideas to an audience
Music – Performing, Composing and Appraising remain at the heart of the Music curriculum. Exploration of key developments in Music through time, including the development of the symphony, builds students’ understanding and experience. Students develop composition and performance across the range of genres, styles and periods.
PE – Increased specialisation in the PE curriculum moves from a focus on students’ own performance to elite sportspeople. The curriculum explores topics such as exercise physiology and applied movement analysis. Wider issues regarding modern sport and recreation are studied, alongside a consideration of how local, national and international level provision supports elite performance. Students apply their learning to their own sporting performance.
