Natalie Thomas

• Key Stage Three Drama
• In Key Stage Three Drama I have taught Departmental schemes of work as well as devising my own
• I have taught all main Drama genres, acting skills and even technical theatre units to Key Stage Three
• Exploring topic such as Bohal, Comedy, Shakespeare, Voice, Brecht, Melodrama, Story telling, Political Drama, T.V Acting and Movement to name but a few
• Key Stage Four Drama
• I have taught G.C.S.E and Entry Level Drama though the WJEC exam specification
• I have created all my own schemes of work at this level and prepared pupils for coursework, for both practical and written assessments
• In my fourth year placement, I was able to gain a detailed understanding of how to assess pupils' work in G.C.S.E Drama both practically and in their written assessments through my subject mentor, who was an external examiner for the W.J.E.C
• Post-sixteen Drama
• At post-sixteen I have taught the more traditional A/S and A level Drama/Theatre Studies and also the more modern BTEC in Performing Arts
• I have taught AQA and WJEC specifications and have successfully prepared pupils in their coursework, practical and written exams
• Year Nine Entry Level Drama
• I am currently teaching my year Nine Drama club Entry Level Drama outside of School lessons
• We have sessions after school and during lunch times
• I deliver this to prepare pupils' who want to take or are thinking about taking GCSE Drama
• Moreover for pupils who enjoy Drama but can't take it because of option restrictions but can gain a qualification within a subject which they love
• Key Stage Three and Key Stage Four English
• I completed my NQT year as an English teacher where I have been given excellent training in my English department
• I have been trained to assess all areas of English: Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing
• At Key Stage Four I have a clear understanding of how to mark both coursework and exams and at Key Stage Three I have a sound knowledge of the assessment of core tasks and in the marking of SAT exams
• I have taught all settings at GCSE level and at Key Stage Three
• I have experience in assessing all areas of English at Key Stage Three and Key Stage Four
• At Key Stage Four I have been assessing and teaching using the WJEC specification and have prepared pupils for both English and English Literature coursework and exams using departmental and my own schemes of work
• I was also involved last year in the English mentoring scheme where once a week where C/D borderline pupils came to English after school for top up lessons on all key topics
• I have also taught and was made teacher in charge this year of Entry Level English and prepared the schemes of work for all staff and lead the monitoring and assessment of all course work for my Head of department
• Extra-curricular projects
• I love taking an active role in all extra-curricular activities in my school as it offers students so much
• I have the skills to direct and choreograph scenes and lead all technical areas of a production
• I have a sound awareness of Health and Safety requirement within the theatre
• I have been lucky enough to undertake very different styles of performances in schools over the past five years from Musicals to Shakespeare's ‘Richard III', to much more modern productions like a PSE project, They took me back for my first teaching job
• I have taught all areas of Key Stage Three English and Drama
• In Drama I have created a number of schemes of work and created tasks to improve the English department schemes of work
• I had comprehensive training in West Monmouth School on assessment of Key Stage Three levels in reading, writing, speaking and listening through English departmental moderation of core tasks
• As well as understanding the assessment Creating, Performing and Responding within Drama
• I have lots of experience at teaching at G.C.S.E and Entry level from the WJEC exam specifications and have taught all units of the qualification in Drama
• I have created all my own schemes of work at this level and prepared pupils for coursework, for both practical and written assessments in both subjects
• I have gain a detailed understanding of how to assess pupils' work in G.C.S.E Drama both practically and in their written assessments
• In West Monmouth School I have been given excellent training in my English department in the assessment of English Speaking and Listening, written coursework and exam marking
• I have taught all settings at GCSE and Entry level English
• Last year I taught mixed classes of sets one and two and three and four both in year ten and eleven
• They were made up of C/D borderline pupils, this has allowed me in my first year to really use my imagination and creativity to experiment and create lessons and tasks to try and push these pupils to gain the GCSE grade they deserve
• I was also involved in English mentoring once a week where more C/D pupils come to English after school for top up lessons on all key topics
• I taught literacy lessons with Key Stage Three pupils where they are taken out of lessons for an hour a week and we played word games, acted out plays and wrote their own stories, play and poems to help improve their literacy skills
• I completed my dissertation on ‘How Drama can help improve literacy skills?' and have used many of my findings to help my pupils in these lessons, which was very successful
• I have undertook two PSE projects in Drama one where year eleven and ten performed ‘legends' a play about teenage issues and Anti-bullying play by year Nine for Key Stage Three, which were both a great success
• Also each year I help UWIC residency students with their productions Macdeath and this year the Flood
• In addition I was involved in a transition project with two other local school's Abersychan and Trevethin, a magical play based around local History written by a local play write
• To celebrate and reflect about Trevethin School closing down, the production acted as an induction for the Trevthin pupils to meet and make new friends in the two new schools that they had to go to which made losing their school much less dramatic for them
• Also during my time I have taught Key Stage Three History, Geography, PSE as well as Health and Social care Btec and Entry level Life Skills
• In addition I taught SEN pupils in a number of subject areas and both Key Stage Three and Key Stage Four including Key Stage Three Drama and History, Life Skills and English
• Another facet of my teaching career is my role as a form teacher, and it is a role which I take very seriously
• I work hard for the pupils in my form, helping them to organise themselves with the use of homework planners; reminding them of the school's policies on uniform, attendance and punctuality; using pastoral time to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills and encouraging them to reflect on their rights and responsibilities as young people through my delivery of PSE.

Mr A Thomas Head of Newbridge School -ThompstonA517@sch.caerphilly.gov.uk

Mr M Guillou Deputy Head of Newbridge School _ GuillouM@sch.caerphilly.gov.uk