In creative arts, students discover a variety of art forms through a study of drama, music and visual arts.

Studying the creative arts, students learn to appreciate, compose, listen, make and perform. Each art form has its own unique knowledge and skills, elements or concepts as well as a capacity to inspire and enrich lives.

Students must study 100 hours of both music and visual arts during Years 7 and/or 8. They also have an opportunity to further develop their knowledge and skills in Visual Arts, Music, Drama, Visual Design and Photography through elective subjects in Years 9 and 10 .

Students can then select from a range of elective courses in Years 11 to 12.

Subjects in Detail

Music

Mandatory in year 7-8, elective in years 9-12

In music students learn about musical forms and styles from different times and places. They will become more discerning and critical listeners and will be able to value and discuss music from a wide variety of styles, cultures and times. They will build confidence to work with others in preparing and presenting group and individual performances to live audiences and create original music that reflects a deeper understanding of music.

Drama

Elective in Years 9-12

In this subject students learn about the elements of Drama and use these to develop their understanding of improvisation and play building. The focus of the course is communication and how to best communicate with an audience in many different contexts.

A variety of different theatrical styles are studied depending upon the year level. Students learn to make, perform and appreciate dramatic and theatrical works. They devise and enact dramas using scripted and unscripted material and use acting and performance techniques to convey meaning to an audience.

In this subject students develop their group work skills, taking turns to direct others and follow directions of both teacher and class mates. They learn to respond to, reflect on and analyse their own work and the work of others and evaluate the contribution of drama and theatre to enriching society.

Visual Arts

Mandatory in Year 7 and 8, elective in Years 9-12

Visual Arts students will learn about art-making and the history of visual arts in both the classroom and through excursions to art galleries.

In Visual Arts students explore the communication of thoughts, ideas and concepts using art as a visual language. Students will learn about the art forms as a way for them to explore different themes and ideas and creatively place their own interpretation in their art-making.

To broaden understanding and appreciation of visual arts, students will learn about different styles, periods, cultures and individual artists who have made significant contributions to art history.

Photography

Elective in Years 9-12

Photography is a subject that is about creating artworks using cameras: film, digital and video. It is a mainly practical subject, however there is a written component which is about how digital artists, photographers and filmmakers create work and develop their ideas.

In photography students explore the possibilities of creating Photographic and Digital Media projects of various types selected from Still Photography (in the darkroom and using digital cameras), Interactives (web pages, virtual reality and installation and moving  (film, video, animation, installation).

In this subject students develop their group work skills, taking turns to direct others and follow directions of both teacher and class mates. They learn to respond to, reflect on and analyse their own work and the work of others and evaluate the contribution of drama and theatre to enriching society.

Visual Design

Elective in years 9-12

In Visual Design students explore artistic practice applied to the development of products for human use. This includes fields such as graphic design, illustration, cartooning, ceramics, jewellery, interior design, industrial design, wearable design and design for theatre. Most of the course is practical but a part of the course looks at the work of professional designers and the evolution of design over time.