Drama
Drama at Claires Court Senior Girls is not just about performing. We believe that the skills learnt and used in drama are a vital part of everyday life, not only at school but also in every student's future desired careers.
Drama is taught within the curriculum and is one of our major co-curricular activities. For the girls that enjoy taking centre stage, there are several performance opportunities every year as well as opportunities backstage in lighting, hair and makeup.
Last year we produced two large scale productions; “Oh Britannia” was a joint performance with Senior Boys celebrating all things British, ranging from William Shakespeare to Andrew Lloyd Webber (and everything in between!)
At Senior Girls, we produced an original musical called “Living the Dream.” It was so successful that we are now working towards another original musical called “Another Day In Paradise” to be performed with the Senior Boys in December 2023.
For our Year 7 and 8 students, we have a Performing Arts event in the summer term where we bring together Key stage 3 students for an evening of performing and creativity.
We organise theatre trips every year for our GCSE students to both local and West End theatres. This is a key part of the course and adds to your daughter’s theatrical and cultural experience.
We also offer LAMDA at Claires Court as part of our afterschool program. We currently have students working toward exams ranging from Grade 3 up to Grade 8. One of the many great things about LAMDA is that at Grade 6,7 and 8 you can achieve UCAS points; these can be very useful to help support students to gain places at universities.
The drama department works closely together with the music department. We enjoy a strong and vibrant relationship and is an area where the students thrive on bringing the creative arts together both on stage and in the rehearsal room.
Art
Art and Design is a very popular subject at Claires Court with usually over half of the year group taking it for GCSE. Students have the opportunity to explore a number of disciplines including: Drawing, Painting, Textiles, Sculpture, Print-making, Photography, Film and Installation. They learn about different era’s of Art and how to analyse the work of other artists while writing about their own work using artistic language.
The Department offers weekly after school Art and Textiles clubs and daily support sessions for GCSE students. Within these clubs they have the opportunity to produce larger pieces outside of the curriculum which are often commissioned and displayed around the school. They visit a number of galleries and museums each year to gain inspiration and gather research for projects in class. The school has well resourced Art and Textiles rooms and a dedicated room for observational drawing and working on standing easels.
Claires Court hosts the Regional ISA Art Competition each year and are regular winners at this event. We hold yearly exhibitions displaying student work and have a strong ethos of displaying and promoting student achievements.
Music
At Claires Court Senior Girls music making is at the centre of our supportive and exciting environment. We do this by:
- Encouraging and developing pupils' interest, knowledge and enjoyment of music
- Building a creative and innovative musical environment
- Showcasing high quality musicianship
The exciting and engaging curriculum will allow your daughter to develop her musical skills through listening, appraising, performing and composing music. The curriculum is relevant and innovative, covering a wide range of styles and incorporating elements of music technology. We encourage discussion and debate as integral to the compositional process and aim to build confident, articulate and independent musicians.
The wide range of extra-curricular activities include:
- Ensemble
- Year 7-9 Choir
- Year 10-13 Choir (Vox Choir)
- Rock School
- Music theory club
- Music Technology club
- Aural club
- Flute group
- Show club
Alongside teaching rooms there are three practice rooms and music studio. Your daughter's technology skills will be developed through the use of Mac desktops and laptops equipped with Logic Pro X and Sibelius software. The studio also contains state-of-the-art recording hardware and software that links to all of the performance spaces providing a highly flexible and exciting recording environment.
There are ongoing opportunities for girls to perform and contribute to concerts, School productions, showcases, inter-house competitions and community events, often in partnership with the Senior Boys and Sixth Form.