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The Senior Department This is an incredibly exciting time for the drama department at LEH: our new arts centre and theatre will soon be ready, along with a suite of refurbished rehearsal and classroom spaces. These will facilitate even more of the very many clubs, productions and events enjoyed by students through-out their time at the school. Within the curriculum, students enjoy weekly drama lessons through-out Year 7 and have a series of timetabled lessons in Years 8 and 9. These lessons introduce the core knowledge and skills for the GCSE course, and the AS/A2 beyond. Drama is taught as a practical subject: students create, perform and critically appraise work in a variety of styles and genres. At GCSE and A-Level, small group sizes allow for maximum flexibility, with students taking responsibility for the direction and progression of their learning. We pride ourselves on teaching beyond the curriculum, using the medium of drama to open our students' eyes to new worlds and experiences.
The extra-curricular programme is rich, varied and ever-expanding. The centre piece of the school arts calendar is the annual musical co-produced with our neighbours at Hampton School: we alternate responsibility for hosting the event every year. It is one of many projects in which the boys take part: school plays, sixth form plays, talks and workshops are often collaborative. We host professional theatre companies, we have extra-curricular clubs at every level of the school, and we have an increasingly specialised technical theatre training programme. We run workshops in local junior schools and invite them in for free performances on site. In addition, there is a well-established and popular House Drama Festival, organised by pupils in Year 12 under the supervision of a member of the English Department. From September 2012 we shall be delighted to host a playwriting residency leading to a commissioned piece of new writing, and we are collaborating with the Spanish Department to create a Sixth Form conference day focusing on Lorca's La Casa de Barnarda Alba. Of course, the driving force behind all of this activity is the girls themselves, and we do all we can to support their ambitious production proposals. We also have a team of visiting teachers delivering the Trinity Guildhall Speech and Drama specification to around 150 students from all year groups. We enjoy fantastic results, and regularly host showcase events where students can try out their work in front of a friendly audience, present a finished piece, or perhaps share a particularly knotty problem they have come across whilst devising.
If you have any questions or suggestions for us, please do not hesitate to contact the Music and Drama Administrator, Mrs Gibbons on musicdrama@lehs.org.uk. Dr Ben Tait |
