Expressive Arts includes drama, dance, music and art, and all students have the opportunity to try each area in their first three years. They may then choose to take GCSE Expressive Arts, for which they specialise in two practical areas from media, drama, dance, music or art.

The school also offers a BTEC in Performing Arts which can be taken as a vocational option in Years 10 and 11. This is a practical course equivalent to 4 GCSEs. Specialist artists can choose either the Art & Design GCSE or the Art VGCSE (vocational GCSE) which focuses on practical art and design applications in daily life.

In Years 7 and 8, students usually do a term of dance and two terms of drama each year. In Year 9, Drama and Expressive Arts are on a “carousel” with Music, ICT and Art, so students have two hours per week of each subject for a quarter of the school year. They also have a separate hour of drama each week in Year 9.

Resources
 

In addition to art and music rooms, there are drama spaces, a music recording studio and a specialist dance studio with a sprung floor.

Outside specialists are regularly invited into the school to work with students in specific areas. The Jazz Dance group helped students to put on a professional performance of dance and music and this has developed into the annual Jazz Café evening. Specialist teachers give tuition in guitar, drums, keyboards, and vocal skills. Professional artists work with students on art projects.

Clubs and out-of-school activities
 

Students are encouraged to take part in external competitions and in the 2008 Schools Dance Competition, student Faye Spooner won the best individual technical dance category and was one of the winning partnership in the Year 9 duo category. Competing against six other Trafford schools, Year 7 and year 9 groups both won awards for their performances and the school was judged to have the best choreography overall.

Drama and Dance Clubs are run mainly for Years 7 to 9 and trips are organised to the Bridgewater Hall and other music venues.

Head of Department: Miss Amanda Bussell