Performing Arts
A growing body of Australian and international research demonstrates the enormous positive impacts that participating in The Performing Arts can have on students’ academic and non-academic success.
There is a strong relationship between the cognitive capacities developed through learning and communicating in dance, drama, media arts, music, and students’ academic and social skills. Positive effects of young people involved in arts-rich education programs include achievements in reading, language and mathematics development, increased higher order thinking skills and capacities, increased motivation to learn, and improvements in effective social behaviours.
An arts-rich education from an early age develops individual creativity and self-expression. School-based arts participation can increase learners’ confidence and motivation, thereby improving school attendance rates, academic outcomes and the well-being and life skills of children and young people.
Collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, imagination, communication, agility and empathy—the experiences and learning that a properly implemented Arts curriculum offer are profound. The Arts provide the logical conduit through which these capacities and related skills, in both the social and emotional domains, can be developed.
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The Bentleigh West Primary School Arts Program
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Students at Bentleigh West study Music, Drama, Dance and Film & Television.
Music
Students learn the fundamentals of music such as:
• rhythm
• pitch/tone/quality
• volume
• patterns
Dance
Students are introduced to dance through the following experiences:
• developing a dance/movement vocabulary
• creating dances
• performing dances
• appreciating the history and culture of dance
Drama
Students participate in drama classes where they explore:
• character: the identity of the parts that are played, including their characteristics, motivations, desires, histories, and cultures
• focus: the ability of the performer to concentrate and channel their energy into the performance
• tension: how conflict or suspense is communicated through the performance.
• symbolic use of spaces and objects: how the actors pretend that spaces and objects are representative of something else
Film & Television
Students learn to both critique and explore Media Arts through:
• conceptual and perceptual ideas and representations
• understanding of the use of the techniques, theories and practices
• respect for and acknowledgement of the diverse roles, innovations, traditions, histories and cultures of artists
• developing confidence, curiosity, imagination, enjoyment and a personal aesthetic
Performances:
• Prep – End of year performance
• Grade 1-4 Midyear Song Concert
• Grade 5&6 Broadway Junior Musical Production (alternate years)
• Grade 5&6 Wakakirri Song Dance Festival (alternate years)
Extra-Curricular Performing Arts offered
• Choir
• Dance Club
• Senior Vocal Ensemble (Term 4)
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