Drama
Objectives
- To develop students’ artistic and creative skills.
- To develop non-verbal and verbal, individual and group communication skills and confidence.
- To help students understand and influence their world through exploring roles and situations and communicating ideas using a range of media, materials and technologies.
- To offer students a variety of activities including performances, excursions to view professional performances and workshops run by members of the industry.
Junior School Curriculum
All students at Years 7 and 8 complete a semester of Drama. In these classes students are encouraged, through simple role-play, to extend their self-knowledge and co-operative skills. They learn to respond to and evaluate their own work and that of others. Topics include mime, voice, actor-focused drama, conflict resolution, script writing, characterisation and storytelling.
In Year 9 students explore acting techniques and experiment with a range of processes used for character development. They research different theatrical styles from a variety of cultural contexts and learn how dramatic and stagecraft elements enhance a performance.
Senior School Curriculum
In Year 10, students create, write and direct play-scripts and use stimuli to create a range of performances. They further explore dramatic/stagecraft elements and experiment with theatrical styles, with an emphasis on non-naturalism. In Year 11, students create performances based on personal, cultural and community stories, as well as exploring character in depth. In Year 12, students create a major group performance as well as create character(s) within a solo performance.
Classroom Music
Objectives
- To introduce the elements of Music through listening, performance and using music software programs.
- To offer students a broad over-view of musical styles and appreciation.
- To foster student development of skills in practical music and performance, in solo and group contexts.
Junior School Curriculum
Classroom Music is taught to Year 7 and 8 for two periods per week for one semester. The course work is based on the Kodaly methodology of singing, aural exercises, music theory, keyboard, ukulele and percussion pieces. Through the keyboard system students learn elements of music including beat, composition, ensemble skills, improvisation and general music literacy.
The elective units available in Year 9 are ‘Music Technology’ and ‘Contemporary Music’.
Senior School Curriculum
Most students studying Music at senior levels do so to gain entrance to tertiary courses or because they wish to continue with music as a leisure time pursuit. In Year 10 students can select from the electives ‘Create a CD’ (where students compose and record their own songs) and ‘Music Technology’ (using programs such as Mixcraft, Sibelius and Audacity). In VCE, the units offered are ‘Music: Investigations’, ‘Music: History and Styles’ and ‘Music Performance’.