TARGET offers accredited drama qualifications through the highly respected LAMDA examinations board.  Universities recognise these drama qualifications as advanced learning processes and award points for the examination grades when children apply to college or university. 

Success in drama examinations, as in any field, encourages confidence and self esteem, whilst also giving participants and parents a tangible reward for their investment, both time and monetary.  Drama qualifications are highly desirable, a good addition to a CV, and are both QCA and DAQW recognised.  The higher grades of these respected qualifications contribute to UCAS points for University and College Entry. 

Subjects include:

Communication Skills – solo drama examinations
Format: Students learn to understand the flow of a text; exams can combine poetry recitation with a discussion with the examiner prompted by a chosen stimulus (introductory exams) or the verses chosen (graded exams).
Outcomes: self-confidence, conversation skills, memorisation, rhythm and timing, diction, projection.

Acting – solo drama examinations
Format: Students learn how to perform a piece of piece of prose, interpreting context, subtext and characterisation.  Performers build up a character from physical appearance and personality, through to hopes, dreams and aspirations. 
Outcomes: self-confidence, memorisation, interpretation, creative thinking, staging, making choices, presentation skills, sensitivity to material.

Acting – duologue drama examinations
Format: This ‘duet-style’ exam allows two students to rehearse together on a piece of prose that relies on their ability to react to one another’s performance as a stimulus.
Outcomes: interaction, collaboration skills, teamwork, dedication, memorisation, presentation skills.

Musical Theatre
Original or published monologues from the Musical Theatre genre are used to demonstrate overall performance skills, usually in combination with a sung performance.  Particularly, a sense of style and mood is created, and students learn to use their acting ability to convey meaning in a piece that forms a part of a wider creative work.  This subject can also be studied in a duologue format.
Outcomes: Collaborative performance skills, memorisation, emotional delivery, multi-disciplinary arts approach, musicality.

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A few notes:

1) Drama exams can be taken in the same manner as instrumental exams – working through the grades from 1 to 8, and sitting them in front of an external examiner up to once every term.  The drama lessons usually comprise small groups (between two to four students) or individual sessions of up to 30 minutes in length. The charges can be made to schools for these lessons and fees to parents organised by each individual school, or fees can be organised directly with parents, thus eliminating the school’s financial involvement.