Visual Arts is a mandatory course for students in Years 7 and 8. The course is designed to stimulate an interest in and enthusiasm for creative pursuits. It is hoped students will gain enjoyment from participating in artistic processes and achieve a high regard for their own creative abilities as well as a respect and appreciation for the work of others. Skills and methods appropriate to students' abilities are taught so that each experience will provide an understanding of the total process of creativity as well as an appreciation of the end product.
Visual Arts, Visual Design and Photography are elective courses that are on offer to students in Years 9 and 10. These courses are designed to challenge and to provoke an enthusiasm and appetite for creative endeavour. It is anticipated that students will be surprised and delighted by the sophistication and strength of their own creative ability. Students are encouraged to develop an increasing level of autonomy, and to think laterally as they solve problems.
Visual Arts, is an elective course that is on offer to students in Years 11 and 12. Visual Arts involves students in the practices of artmaking, art criticism and art history. The Preliminary Course is a broad course, while the HSC course provides for deeper and increasingly more independent investigations. Students develop their own artworks culminating in a body of work for the HSC course that reflects students' knowledge and understanding of their artmaking practice and which demonstrates their abilities to resolve a conceptually strong work. Students critically investigate works, critics, historians and artists from Australia as well as those from other cultures, traditions and times.
Visual Design, Ceramics and Photography/Video/Digital Imaging are elective content endorsed courses that are on offer to students in Years 11 and 12.
These three courses, Visual Design, Ceramics and Photography/Video/Digital Imaging are designed to foster interest and enjoyment in the doing, production and consumption of visual arts. These courses provide a rigorous learning experience which can lead to related tertiary or vocational studies and employment. In contemporary societies many types of knowledge are increasingly managed through imagery and spectacle and much of students' knowledge is acquired in this way. Visual Design, Ceramics and Photography/Video/Digital Imaging serve to facilitate the engagement in and interpretation of such information.
The Music Department at St Clair High School consists of two music rooms, a practice room, staff room, instrument store room and computer keyboard laboratory. The department is well resourced with a Piano and drum kit in each classroom, a class set of acoustic guitars, a variety of electric instruments, brass and woodwind instruments.
Music is a mandatory course for students in Years 7 and 8. One 75 minute period per timetable cycle (two week) has been allocated to this course per year.
The course is designed to engage and challenge all students to maximise their individual talents and capabilities for lifelong learning.
Students will develop knowledge, understanding and skills in the concepts of music through Performing, Composing, Listening and Musicology.
Students are given the opportunity to learn the basics in performance, and experience playing instruments such as percussion instruments, guitars and keyboards.
Student workbooks will be available for purchase, which contain all the learning experiences about various, styles of music, music theory, and practical performances.
Music is an elective course that is offered to students in years 9 and 10. Four 75 minute periods per timetable cycle (two week) has been allocated for these courses, per year.
Students are given the opportunity to engage in increased levels of complexity and creative performance, musicology, composition and listening activities, and continue to build upon their own skills and abilities on their chosen instrument.
Students are given the opportunity to learn in considerable depth, various topic areas which include; Australian Music, Baroque Music, Music for radio, Film, Television and Multimedia, Popular Music, Classical Music, Music and Technology and Rock Music.
Students who choose elective music have the opportunity to participate in school music groups, music nights and performances as well as attending performances both at school and at outside venues.
Students in Year 11 and 12 are offered Music 1. This course is 2 units and contributes to the UAI. Four 75 minute periods per timetable cycle (two week) has been allocated for this course per year. This course is designed for students who have a keen interest in Music. It can accommodate those who have not studied the subject before as well as those who have prior experience. All students who undertake music for the H.S.C are required to learn an instrument and practice regularly at home. Private instrumental tuition, while not compulsory, is an advantage.
This course consists of the study of 6 topic areas. These topic areas cover a wide range of music and include: Methods of Notating Music, Music of a Culture, Music and Technology, Music for Radio, Film, Television and Multimedia, and Australian Music. Each topic requires activities in Performance, Composition, Musicology, and Aural.
Students get the opportunity to further improve on their musical skills as they gain a greater depth of knowledge of all the musical concepts. (Pitch, Duration, Tone Colour, Texture, Structure, Dynamics and Expressive Techniques.) This will aid them in the areas of Performance, Composition, Musicology, and Aural.
Students also have increased opportunities to specialise on a chosen instrument, and also to develop songs in styles that interest them. They also have increased opportunities to perform within school and community based venues.
We have had great success with students in this course, as many students have music as their top scoring subject, and many students achieving bands 5 and 6.
Drama is first offered to students in Year 9 as a 100 hour elective. This is equivalent to two 75 minute periods per cyclic two week timetable.
This course is designed to introduce students to the theatrical environment and the skills of making, performing and appreciating that are needed to be a performer. It will also introduce students to the range of possible performance styles.
In Year 10, students develop their introductory skills of making, performing and appreciating by applying them to different performance styles, working more independently and in more depth as well as developing their group work skills.
The course has both a practical (60%) and theoretical (40%) component that are applied simultaneously. The theoretical component ensures that students have a sufficient understanding of theatrical concepts before attempting to apply them in practice. The practical component then allows them to be reflective of their practical work and link it back to the theatrical concepts.
Drama is offered as an elective course in both Year 11 and 12. Four 75 minute periods per cyclic two week timetable has been allocated to these courses, per year.
Drama involves students in the practices of making, performing and critically studying. The Preliminary Course is designed to prepare students for the HSC Course. Through participation, students will develop knowledge, understanding and skills in improvisation, playbuilding and acting, elements of production in performance, theatrical traditions and performance styles. Similar to the Stage 5 course the practical (60%) and theoretical (40%) components are applied simultaneously.
HSC Drama requires students to develop their critical study skills by exploring, analyzing, interpreting and synthesizing their research on various approaches to acting and plays specifically from Contemporary Australia in both a written and practical form. Students also develop a group performance and are expected to work independently on an Individual Project of their choosing. Each student must maintain a logbook that records and reflects the process of their project.