Complete Drama

Writing a curriculum

Before you begin to create a curriculum, you may wish to consider the following questions:

What are the specific needs of your students? How have you assessed these?
What do you want students to achieve by the end of the key stage?
What skills do you want them to have covered? Why?
Could you forge any links with other departments?
What are the requirements of your school and current whole school policies?
What publications are available from organisations such as the QCA, Arts Council England, DfES or exam boards?
What facilities and resources does your school have?
What are the timetable restraints on drama lessons?
What is already in place for drama?
What skills, ideas and experiences do colleagues in your department have?
What skills, ideas and experiences do drama colleagues in neighbouring schools have (especially those which are specialist Performing Arts colleges)?

If you are the person responsible for drama in your school, you need to be clear about the focus of your department and how you can communicate this to other stakeholders to retain their support. You should consider a variety of influences:

Influences on drama

Influence on drama in your school could come from:

students
other teachers in your department
parents/carers
theorists/practitioners in the field
governors
the school environment and the local community
the senior management team
whole school policies
Ofsted/professional standards.

You may wish to consider what Ofsted inspectors will look for when they visit your school:

	Inspecting Subjects 11-16 – Drama with Guidance on Self-evaluation

	Guidance for the inspection of dance and drama schools

Consider what you are setting out to do in your drama curriculum:

What the curriculum should do

The curriculum should:

describe the course content (ie what is in the course).
explain the course focus (ie the key areas of learning).
identify the course’s goals (ie the end objectives).
sequence the teaching and learning.
identify the resources required, allowing effective preparation and time management (so that the resources are in place before the teaching starts, rather than assembling them during the course).
motivate students.
provide a base for modification and diversification.
include self-evaluation.
establish an evaluation system so that everyone in the department uses the same criteria and activities.
include constant evaluation of work by the students and by the teachers.
ensure that all students have access to appropriate teaching and resources.
consider the local culture, heritage and community and the cultural identities of the community.
use a variety of artistic, oral and literary sources.
include cross-curricular themes.
ensure some understanding of the social context of drama.
include differentiation.
consider equality.

These key elements are also provided on the following checklist:

Key elements of a curriculum