Drama Department Vision and Mission

COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND CONFIDENCE FOR LIFE!!

Drama is the collaborative exploration and analysis of meaning
through the enactment of events.
(NATE in Cracking Drama 2000)

Drama is an important part of the balanced arts curriculum at Jumeirah College and is taught as a discrete subject from Year 7 through to Year 13.  In Years 7, 8 and 9 all students receive one Drama lesson per week and it is an optional subject at GCSE and A level.  Pupils research, discuss and use drama techniques to explore character and situations. They devise and present scripted and improvised dramas in response to a range of stimuli, demonstrating their ability to investigate ideas, situations and events and an understanding of how theatre can communicate in innovative, challenging ways.

Jumeirah College has a vigorous, well-equipped drama department which promotes individual self-confidence, encourages social cooperation and enhances creativity. Drama enables students to explore their lives and world in ways that engage them on both an intellectual and an emotional level. Through drama pupils can develop their ‘emotional literacy’ and analytical awareness by seeing the world imaginatively from other perspectives. This imaginative engagement underpins the development of their critical thinking. As suggested in the Arts Council for England publication, Drama in Schools, Drama can make a major contribution to the development of pupils’ critical thinking:

“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.”