PERFORMING ARTS
Performing Arts enables pupils to communicate ideas, emotions and experiences through performance, composition and creative interpretation. Through Drama and Music, pupils develop confidence, discipline, collaboration and increasingly independent artistic decision-making.
Creative expression through performance
The Performing Arts curriculum combines practical creativity with disciplined rehearsal, subject knowledge and critical evaluation. Pupils learn that successful performance depends upon purposeful choices, sustained practice, collaboration and an understanding of how performers and creators communicate with audiences.
At Key Stage 3, pupils develop through Drama and Music. Both subjects combine knowledge with practical application, requiring pupils to rehearse, refine, respond to feedback and evaluate the impact of creative choices.
Drama
Drama develops confidence, creativity, empathy and disciplined collaboration. Through devising, scripted performance and evaluation, pupils learn how vocal, physical and design choices communicate meaning to an audience and how theatre can explore experiences, ideas and society.
Acting, directing, teaching, theatre design, stage management, writing, broadcasting, arts administration and communication-based professions.
Performance foundations
Out of My Mind, Poetry and Identity and Treasure Island introduce pupils to character, plot and dramatic stimulus. Pupils develop improvisation, devising and scripted work alongside core vocal and physical techniques including projection, pitch, tone, gesture and facial expression.
Text, convention and atmosphere
Speak Up!, Twelfth Night and The Woman in Black develop interpretation and control. Pupils work with rhetoric, Shakespearean comedy and Gothic conventions while refining pace, pause, projection, movement, use of space, tension, dramatic irony and stage positioning.
Page to stage
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Blood Brothers and An Inspector Calls require increasingly sophisticated interpretation. Pupils consider context, social class and theatrical approaches while developing characterisation, physical theatre and more independent evaluation of practical work.
Pupils first establish performance discipline, ensemble work and core vocal and physical techniques. They then interpret increasingly demanding texts and conventions before refining artistic choices, analysing social context and evaluating performance with greater independence.
Music
Music enables pupils to perform, compose, listen and respond with growing fluency and imagination. Pupils build practical command of instruments and technology while learning how musical elements, notation, genres and cultural contexts shape meaning.
Performance, composition, production, sound engineering, teaching, film and games music, broadcasting, live events and arts management.
Musical foundations
Elements of Music and African Drumming establish pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and rhythm. Keyboard Skills, Tonality, Orchestra and Ukulele develop notation, instrumental technique, ensemble discipline, improvisation and short composition.
Popular genres and performance
Pop, Rock and Hip-Hop allow pupils to apply earlier musical knowledge within contrasting genres. They develop riffs, melody, harmony, notation and instrumentation while exploring sampling, DJing, MCing and technology through performance, composition and evaluative listening.
Composition and production
Blues develops improvisation, 12-bar structure, blues scales, swing and harmony. Music for Film and Games introduces leitmotif and composition for mood and purpose before EDM and Music Production develop digital production, effects and increasingly independent musical decision-making.
Pupils begin with rhythm, notation, musical elements and ensemble routines. They then perform and compose within contrasting genres before applying increasingly sophisticated harmony, improvisation, digital production and evaluative listening.
Performing Arts at Key Stage 4
At Key Stage 4, pupils can develop their creative and practical skills further through Drama, Dance and Music. Across these pathways, increasing independence is expected through rehearsal, refinement, critical evaluation and the purposeful application of subject knowledge.
Drama
Pupils study performance skills, dramatic conventions, production elements, a set text and live or recorded theatre. Devising and scripted performance require them to research, rehearse, refine and evaluate while written work analyses how performers, directors and designers create meaning.
Dance
Dance develops performance, choreography, analysis and collaboration. Pupils develop technical and expressive skills, learn repertoire, explore choreographic ideas and respond to creative briefs while refining their own practice and evaluating professional work.
Music
Pupils develop musicianship through performing, composing, producing and analysing. They study contrasting genres, create musical products and progressively take greater responsibility for planning, rehearsal, target-setting, refinement and responding to a professional-style creative brief.
Performance, collaboration and creative refinement
Performing Arts requires pupils to combine practical skill with reflection and subject knowledge. Creative work develops through rehearsal, feedback and refinement rather than through a single finished response.
Performance & technique
Pupils develop control of their chosen performance discipline through repeated practice. Precision, fluency, expressive control and awareness of an audience become increasingly important as work becomes more demanding.
Rehearsal & collaboration
Ensemble work requires pupils to listen, respond, organise time, accept direction and contribute reliably. They learn that successful creative work depends upon preparation, cooperation and constructive response to feedback.
Reading & interpretation
Drama pupils interpret scripts, stage directions and contextual material, while musicians read notation, chord symbols and musical instructions. Across the faculty, pupils connect written information with practical creative choices.
Evaluation & refinement
Pupils learn to describe creative choices precisely, explain their intended effect and evaluate outcomes. Feedback becomes increasingly analytical and is used to refine performance, composition and production.
Performing Arts at Rainhill Sixth
Performing Arts continues at Rainhill Sixth through a Level 3 pathway. Students develop performance skills through practical exploration, rehearsal and refinement while investigating professional practitioners and responding collaboratively to vocationally relevant creative briefs.
Level 3 Performing Arts