Standard Grade Drama

Aims:

Drama holds a valuable place in the education of a person. In addition to teaching an appreciation of Theatre and the Dramatic Arts, it helps to develop the important life skills of communication, working with others, organisation and presentation. Drama develops empathy and emotional maturity and gives students the confidence, which is necessary to achieve their potential.

Course:

Students will explore relationships and issues mainly by acting out situations using language and movement. They will use a variety of forms to explore, express and communicate ideas, emotions and relationships. Students will develop an awareness of body language. Drama activities can be improvised or rehearsed. When these activities involve an audience of any kind, some aspects of theatre are present. This may involve the performing skills of acting and directing and the technical skills of designing and implementing within the areas of lighting, sound, costume, stage make-up, props and set design.

All students follow a common course, which consists of a series of units of work providing a structured sequence of drama activities.
 

Assessment:

Work is assessed in the following course elements:

Creating, Presenting, Knowledge & Understanding

2/3 of the course are practical with 1/3 asking the student to think of drama as an academic subject, however the K&U section of the course, albeit theory based, enhances the work of the acting section.

Creating and Presenting are internally assessed with external moderation as required by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. (The course element Presenting includes two pieces of evaluative work also internally assessed and externally moderated.) Knowledge and Understanding is externally assessed by means of an examination paper.

Homework:

Homework consists of recording the activities and the critical appraisal of work done.

The students will be expected to take part in theatre visits.

The Standard Grade Body of Knowledge:

You can find the SQA Standard Grade Body of Knowledge here. This is a great resource for Parents who wish to help their child with their Drama Homework. All pupils recieved this as part of their Drama Survival Guide at the start of S3.

Past Papers

The SQA Past Papers for Standard Grade Drama can be found here.