The arts faculty have been recently brainstorming ideas on how to improve the drama and theatre department at Bushey Meads School. Our aim was to introduce a variety of educational yet enjoyable topics integrated into each term for mainly the Key Stage 3 students ( years 7,8 and 9 ). We are revamping KS3 drama lessons with the help and training of David Didau, the Senior Lead Practitioner for English at Ormiston Academies Trust.

We met to discuss the current KS3 curriculum to see which units didn’t meet the needs of students today. The main ideology was to begin linking certain KS3 topics to perhaps more advanced levels, such as Key Stage 4 and GCSE level drama. Our next steps would be to research a multitude of different plays to slowly implement into each curriculum. Our targets would be to introduce more varied, diverse plays in order to educate students on culture and ethnicity in their early years.

Following on from this, the student leaders in the arts have currently been engaging very positively with drama and theatre here at school. As a current Year 12 student, I have personally engaged in ‘Kindness Matters’ – a weekly volunteering session in any KS3 or KS4 lesson of your choice. As well as this, our team of technicians have been working hard to help run a multitude of performance events, and our year 12 drama leaders, Gabriella di Gregorio, Sophie Duffey and Aryan Faraboushehri worked as front of house staff for our recent MA event. With the help of these amazing leaders, we are enthusiastic to introduce new and exciting topics into the KS3 drama curriculum at Bushey Meads School.

Article written by Simran Sharma Year 12 Arts faculty student leader.