With the many changes coming into the Drama exam curriculum, we found our students often struggle to get experimental or creative with their rehearsals / devising process. We have put together a collection of our favourite rehearsal techniques which are displayed in our teaching spaces to help encourage students to be more creative and adventurous with their choice of rehearsal strategy and develop their toolkit for devising ready for their exams.

As students are now required to devise at both GCSE and A Level, we have put together some extra resources to assist students in their creative process. This mind map covers a range of theoretical and practical aspects of the devising process and we use it as a tool to inspire students to be more creative and thoughtful when developing their own work. We have been inspired by the new Drama GCSE and A level courses and used the Edexcel marking criteria for GCSE Component 1 to help cover a broad spectrum of devising concepts but kept it in a format that could be accessed by KS 3 - 5.

This is a power point presentation that we use for year 8 students which also doubles up as a scheme of work. We were finding our students struggled to be independent in class time and wanted to try a way of encouraging them to break away from the same structure of rehearsals and performances that lacked a bit of depth. We found this also helped students to collaborate better to solve the challenges of some of the tasks rather than see the teacher every time. We've kept the resources required as simple as possible and built in some homework tasks but this power point is entirely adaptable. We used the work of Banksy as a stimulus since its visual, a good discussion starter and often reflected contemporary social issues that the students found interesting. We often print slides and use them as work sheets / differentiate them according to the class. Performance work created from this unit has featured a more interesting structure, more sophisticated characterisation from the students and it has helped them to build a tool kit for devising their own work which is helpful in preparation for their GCSE.

We use this resource both in classroom displays to aid discussion but also for homework and to assist students when writing about or researching practitioners. Key terms are in colour-coded columns with progressively complex terms, ideas or language. We ask students to use a certain number of terms in their written work or discussion and they have to tick which terms they have used as they speak or write to ensure they have made appropriate use of subject specific vocabulary. It’s a good resource for paired discussion or comparative marking. It’s been a great resource for students to help in homework, discussion and for projects like presentations and extended writing. We adapt it as we go, deleting some columns to differentiate for students lower down the school or adding and changing words as needed.

We have created an adaptable group booklet for mapping the devising process. All tasks and resources are optional or changeable and we always use them as a suggestion for students. We have used the EDEXCEL GCSE criteria but again this could be changed. We also use a simplified version for our KS3 students when introducing them to making their own work for the first time. We also have a KS5 version which includes information on practitioners. The booklet covers as much about devising as possible and has been a great tool to inspire them when they have found it challenging or when they need to consider the best creative 'next step'. It has been particularly useful in getting LA students to log and monitor their progress in a relevant way and allowing them to look back and reflect on their work.

This is a flow chart that we created to help students structure their coursework writing. The chart offers a series of steps that cover the marking criteria by breaking it down into manageable chunks and strings them together in a logical pattern. We use this chart when students are writing up their class notes, when they are writing their coursework and then when they are doing their final checks. We have used this for about 5 years and developed it over time, it's coloured to help our visual leaners and it's particularly effective when students find structuring their coursework difficult or when they struggle with the depth of the content. This will need adjusting according to the unit (for example, the chart features a box both on 'group work' and 'personal contribution' that we adjust accordingly).

This is what we use to introduce year 7 to 'Pantomime'. We use a doddle - style criteria in our department which is entirely optional but we have inputted some suggested criteria to help give you a sense of what we look at and when. We also use planners rather than books for feedback but have also added in resource sheets and slips to aid with this. The scheme is written to last a half term, we use a 'Cinderalla' script but you can use whatever script you prefer or just use verbal storytelling. We have also built in an optional baseline assessment.

This is a set of 16 tasks (with extensions) to help students prepare for their C3 exam. It can easily be adapted for different set texts but this includes 'Dr Faustus' and 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist'. I have used both set questions from the Edexcel website and some questions that we have made up to push the students. The tasks are broken down into different skill sets for example; the levels of detail in examples given, time management and effective planning.

We use this unit as an introduction to year 7 Drama, the theme of 'spies' is a vehicle with which we teach the key techniques students will need to know. We have written in a doddle - style assessment approach but this is optional. The unit is written to last approximately a half a term. We use planners to note down feedback but this is optional too and we have added in extra resources for feedback and students who need some extra support with some of the verbal tasks.

This unit is designed to introduce students to Drama for the first time - there are also notes for each slide for anyone who hasn't taught Drama before / some extra thoughts and ideas from our own teaching of this unit. Please feel free to adapt it - it's completed in power point form to make it as easy to use as possible. On each slide, there is a title that tells students whether they are learning something new, developing their skills or compounding their knowledge. Most tasks are quite flexible but there is enough information in the power point to use as is. The only resource required are some post its but scraps of paper would also do. This unit assesses their ability to collaborate and make basic use of fundamental drama skills but there are chances for formative assessment in the 'summary' or 'discussion' sections. I've left lesson numbers and timings off so teachers / students can go through at their own pace but you might want to add this.

We use these posters in our classrooms to help our younger classes choose an appropriate staging style rather than just placing the audience in a default 'end on' position. We use this in conjunction with our 'Devising' unit to help students think more carefully about the way their work engages their audience. The final slide also introduces them to site specific work and we use this as a basis for discussing and considering how performances outside of a traditional theatre can work and we challenge them in a final assessment to choose an area on our site to perform in as an interesting alternative to a theatre space.

We use this unit to introduce year 7 to Shakespeare and 'The Tempest'. We have avoided using the language of the play and instead focused on the narrative, themes and characters. This unit has been written to last a half term. We have built in a doddle style assessment which is optional but gives you an idea of how the unit can be assessed. We have also added teacher and student resources to help with knowledge and feedback. All of these are optional. We also use this unit to teach students some of the more complex dramatic techniques such as soundscape.

This is a glossary compiled to help develop general theatre knowledge - we haven't done it in any specific order but compiled it with students over time. This is saved in a word format in case anyone wishes to adjust the order.

We use this resource both in classroom displays to aid discussion but also for homework and to assist students when writing about or researching practitioners. Key terms are in colour-coded columns with progressively complex terms, ideas or language. We ask students to use a certain number of terms in their written work or discussion and they have to tick which terms they have used as they speak or write to ensure they have made appropriate use of subject specific vocabulary. It’s a good resource for paired discussion or comparative marking. It’s been a great resource for students to help in homework, discussion and for projects like presentations and extended writing. We adapt it as we go, deleting some columns to differentiate for students lower down the school or adding and changing words as needed.

We use this resource both in classroom displays to aid discussion but also for homework and to assist students when writing about or researching practitioners. Key terms are in colour-coded columns with progressively complex terms, ideas or language. We ask students to use a certain number of terms in their written work or discussion and they have to tick which terms they have used as they speak or write to ensure they have made appropriate use of subject specific vocabulary. It’s a good resource for paired discussion or comparative marking. It’s been a great resource for students to help in homework, discussion and for projects like presentations and extended writing. We adapt it as we go, deleting some columns to differentiate for students lower down the school or adding and changing words as needed.

We use this sheet in KS4 and KS5 lessons when students are required to understand and develop a role. We give them this sheet once they have chosen a text and had a chance to begin learning a monologue or performance piece. It’s quite a flexible resource and it’s also been helpful when we introduce Stanislavski’s methods for the first time. I’ve saved it in an A3 format as students preferred the space to write and it is in Microsoft word in case you wish to edit.

These posters have been created as part of a group of resources to help students work more independently and to devise with more creativity / efficiency. We use this for all KS and as a display in our teaching spaces to refer to when students 'get stuck' when making up their own work and aren't sure what they could do next.

We adapted a different booklet from the GCSE and A level to help students structure their Unit 3 rehearsal enough to be able to more effectively reflect on their process before they write up their work. Students have been working through the suggestions in the booklet to ensure they are covering the requirements of this unit. The structure and activities are adaptable and it’s more used as a point of reference or for some inspiration when they struggle during their creation process. We have not used any particular stimulus, this can be added according to the year.

This is a great resource for peer assessment. This sheet requires students to watch and evaulate the voice and movement skills of their peers and for their peers to assess them. Using rag rating, students make a judgement about voice and physicality in performance which is then quality checked by someone else and this has lead to some thoughtful discussion. This task works particularly well if the class are working on monologues in pairs who can be joined into groups of four (there are four roles on the sheet; the performer, the peer assessor, the quality control assessor and the understanding assessor). We usually rotate roles so each student gets a chance to assess and perform. It also has a feedforward / reflection activity where each student has to identify their successes and area for development - it also requires them to consider the ways in which they can improve each of those things when working with their partner in future lessons.