Year 7

Students will explore the use of space through the scheme of work ‘obstacles’ where they create movement material working in small groups.  Key physical and expressive skills will be developed throughout the year.  There are several opportunities to be involved in extra-curricular clubs, mostly run by students, as well as performance opportunities.

Year 8

Students work on developing skills linked to contact work which embraces the element of trust.  There are many opportunities to use different stimuli to inspire outcomes. Choreographic devices and structures are embedded into practical work and analysis of own and others work. There are several opportunities to be involved in extra-curricular clubs, as well as performance opportunities.

Year 9 

GCSE Dance route way for selected students at year 9.  Students cover 4 different units that involve performing, Choreographic, knowledge and understanding of choreographic processes and subject matter and appreciation of professional dance works.

Students who enrol on the course have the opportunity to extend to accreditation in year 10.

GCSE Drama is an excellent addition to all manner of subjects.  The skills that you develop are not explicitly linked to ‘acting and performance’.  Whilst you will develop your understanding of and approaches to creating original theatre, you will also benefit from working creatively, planning and working collaboratively. This requires you to develop your personal skills in negotiation, teamwork, problem solving as well as building personal confidence to present your ideas to an audience. 

The course is both exciting and challenging and allows you to work in a different way to most other lessons.

We follow the OCR GCSE Drama specification which is made up of 3 units:

1.  Devising Drama = 30%

2. Presenting and Performing Texts = 30%

3. Performance and Response = 40%

A Level Drama and Theatre Studies is a practical, intellectual and artistic subject. You will be expected to explore the structural elements of theatre from the page to the stage. In order to be successful and enjoy this subject, you will need to have a keen interest in the history of drama and study the practitioners, theatrical forms and conventions that make theatre such a compelling and exciting subject. You must be able to analyse and critically deconstruct the work you study, create and witness.

What will I learn?

Lessons are a healthy combination of practical learning supported by the necessary academic theory needed to understand the work being studied in preparation for written exams. Learning takes place through the following: practical workshops, researching background material on a playwright, written research (social/cultural/historical), rehearsal of a production, participating in improvisation, devised work and written examinations. Students are required to explore 3 play texts as well as attend the theatre to watch live productions.  These methods increase understanding of the subject and provide more detail and substance to the students work.

We follow the OCR A Level Drama and Theatre Course where students complete the following units:

1. Practitioners in Practice = 40%

2. Exploring and Performing Texts = 20%

3. Analysing Performance = 20%

4. Deconstructing Texts for Performance = 20%

We run a huge number of trips to the theatre including annual opportunities for all key stages to go to the West End.  Recent productions that we have seen include, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Woman in Black; Bally Turk; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Matilda; Shakespeare in Love; War Horse as well as more local performances at The Theatre Royal in Plymouth and The Northcott including Antigone; Midsummer Night’s Dream along with many, many more.

Y7 Drama Club runs on a Friday lunchtime and is led by our gifted and talented students in KS4 and KS5. 

KPAC (KEVICC Performing Arts Company) are a musical theatre group who meet at  Lunchtimes and after school.  KPAC is open to years 5 – 13.  We welcome students from our local Primary Schools to join us.

Students have gone on to work professionally in both acting careers as well as production.

Many students have gone on to drama school or university to take their studies in drama further and one ex- drama student has recently made her debut at the National Theatre.

Year 7

Music is taught in weekly, one hour lessons.  In year 7, students initially explore the elements of music defined in our KS3 National Curriculum as well as being encouraged to take up an instrument of their choice - through either class and self-teaching and/or instrumental teaching 1:1 with our huge range of peripatetic teachers who visit weekly.  Students explore topics on leitmotifs, graphic scores and theme and variations - all to be able to improve their knowledge and depth of music but also their ability to apply certain devices/techniques to create their own compositions.  Finally, the summer term allows students to find their own identity within music as they form 'bands' to learn their own choice of repertoire and potentially perform these in our summer concerts or open mic lunchtime events.

Year 8

Enjoy a trip through the history of the Blues and learn to perform your own walking bass as well as lessons on creating your own compositions using variation technique.  A magical ride awaits you through music of the world and there are opportunities to explore music technology if you love dance music.  If the second half of the year, you will choose your own ‘band’ to work in and create a series of performances based on songs of your choice. There are several opportunities to be involved in extra-curricular clubs, mostly run by students, as well as performing at our Christmas concert or school show.

Year 9

An introduction to GCSE music through three termly topics based on listening, composing and performance skills.  Term one will explore the history of pop music and will result in you creating your own pop bands and organising a gig.  Term two will look at exploring areas of study within a range of different historical pieces and learning how to be a music critique; reviewing live and recorded performances.  Term three will see you venture into your own project based on creating/performing your own piece of music; the best of these will have a chance to perform this in our summer festival.  There are several opportunities to be involved in extra-curricular clubs, mostly run by students, as well as performing at our Christmas concert or school show.