Updates to Trinity Drama qualifications – new for 2023

From September 2023 – specifications for Trinity’s face-to-face and digital Drama grades and diplomas are changing

Trinity Drama specifications have been improved and updated, valid for all subjects. These are now available to download on this page.

When are Trinity’s Drama specifications changing?

The new syllabus specifications are for exams as from September 2023. From this time onwards the 2020 face-to-face and digital grade and diploma specifications will no longer be valid, and all teachers and candidates must use the newer syllabus specifications in exams.

Why is Trinity updating its Drama specifications?

We have listened to feedback from our customers to update some of our tasks to better reflect current teaching practice.

The following syllabus specifications are affected:

• Acting
• Musical Theatre
• Performance Arts
• Speech and Drama
• ATCL Performing and Communication Skills

We are streamlining the experience for teachers and candidates by:

• Publishing the requirements for face-to-face and digital exams in a single document for each subject
• Redesigning the Key Skills tasks and including them as part of the fixed specifications

What is changing in the Drama specifications?

• Removal of the stimuli requirement for Key Skills tasks in Digital Grades and Diploma exams. All information needed for these tasks is published in the new syllabus specifications, enabling teachers and candidates to make their exam recording when they are ready to submit the assessment.
• Expressive Reading and Text Analysis tasks replaces Sight Reading and Unseen Text tasks in the Speech and Drama syllabus. This encourages candidates to use their imagination, exploring creative ways to bring a text to life. Candidates will work ‘book in hand’ and will be expected to be familiar with the piece, reading from the page without the need for memorisation. Candidates and teachers will be provided with an approved list of pieces at each grade.
• Character Development takes the place of Improvisation/Modification. This encourages candidates to explore character through improvisation in the classroom, preparing a piece that demonstrates their understanding of character, narrative and techniques used to achieve a performance.
• Reflection questions now published in the syllabus specifications. This enables teachers to build reflective activities into the rehearsal and preparation process, where candidates can develop reflection as a core element in their learning, promoting greater depth of knowledge and a broader understanding of the processes and skills used to develop their pieces. Candidates are encouraged to prepare their responses, demonstrating their depth of knowledge and understanding.
• Content published. Teachers and candidates will now be able to prepare for all the tasks in advance of the exam.
• Revised viva voce tasks. This task has been revised to include published reflection questions and a prepared talk. This affects ATCL Performing and ATCL Communication Skills.
• Support Resources. We have made some updates and additions to the videos on the resources page to support the new tasks.