Drama Department
The Drama Department prides itself on the energy, dedication and enthusiasm of its extracurricular activities and particularly is renowned for the success of its annual Senior School Production.
Past Productions include: 'Grease'(Christmas 2010), 'Crazy for You' (March 2010), ‘Success' (commissioned by National Theatre: New Connections, performed at The Wales Millennium Centre's Weston Studio),'We Will Rock You', ‘Little Shop of Horrors', ‘Jekyll and Hyde', ‘Sweet Charity', ‘Guys and Dolls' and ‘Les Miserables' (Premiere of the School's Edition and Performed as part of the inaugural Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theatre). We are particularly proud of our production as Cameron Macintosh travelled from London to watch the opening night.
During the Summer term, Year 8 are also given the opportunity to tread the boards and the whole year take to the stage in a musical theatre production. Recent productions have included ‘The Fame Game' and ‘Alice in Wonderland'. Year 7 also participate in a Summer Term Theatre In Education project, when they rehearse a piece of drama to be toured around local primary schools, this year they performed ‘Skellig' by David Almond.
The aims and objectives of the department can be summed up in our departmental mission statement:
‘Learning and teaching in a safe, stimulating and supportive environment are paramount, with teamwork, discipline and effort providing opportunities for all Stanwell pupils to make progress, achieve success and enjoy excellence.'
In Key Stage 3, every pupil receives a weekly lesson in Drama and also has the chance to participate in the Drama Club. Great enjoyment is shown for the subject during this key stage and many go on to further advance their acting skills through selecting GCSE and A Level Drama. For the current academic year, 2009-2010, Year 10 has 88 students, Year 11 has 90 students, whilst in the Sixth Form Year 12 has 20 students and Year 13 has 25 students.
The department aim to deliver a diverse range of theatrical genres and specialist performance styles within their schemes of work , also leading several theatre visits throughout the year and inviting theatre professionals from the industry to lead workshops ( ‘Strange Face Theatre Company', ‘Theatre Iolo', ‘Black Rat Productions' and ‘Theatre Na'NOg' and Mal Pope.). The department benefits from the best facilities including a 410 seat auditorium, a dance studio with mirrors and a sprung floor, a fully equipped drama studio with lighting and sound mixing desks and an extensive selection of theatrical resources.
Effective drama teaching aids the development of pupils' thinking skills. Drama thrives on cognitive challenge, when pupils are presented with new ideas or unexpected pieces of information. In drama lessons, pupils are asked to use a range of thinking strategies, such as hypothesising, to solve a problem both within a narrative or the drama form itself. They are encouraged to rethink their strategies when surprising events occur and to be flexible in their approaches. Pupils are frequently required to speculate about the nature of a character, problem or mystery before them. They have to use deductive reasoning to justify their opinions or choice of dramatic technique both in and out of role. They deal with dramatic metaphors, the symbolic and the abstract. The drama teacher uses reflection and questioning, constantly seeking to challenge pupils to consider their responses in greater depth, thus promoting higher order thinking and deepening the drama. ( Drama In Schools, Arts Council of England Publication)
The Drama Department is made up of the following members of staff:
Miss Rhian Davies Head of Department
Miss Louise Maddy Teacher of Drama
Mrs Rebecca Matthews Teacher of Drama
Mrs Rebecca Connor Head of Year 12 & teacher of Drama and Media Studies
Mrs Sara Hall Teacher of Drama and media Studies
Mr Alistair Reid Lighting and Sound Technician
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