Catalyst • Junior Secondary Curriculum • Handbook 2021
Core
Subject
The Arts
members. They develop perceptual and conceptual
understanding, critical reasoning and practical skills
through exploring and expanding their understanding
of their world and other worlds.
The Core Arts program at Guildford Grammar
School has the capacity to engage, inspire and
enrich all students, exciting the imagination and
encouraging them to reach their full creative and
expressive potential. The term ‘creativity’ plays a
critical role in all Arts courses and is intrinsically
embedded in the teaching and learning process.
The Core Arts learning area comprises four subjects:
Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. Together
they provide opportunities for students to learn how
to create, design, represent, communicate and share
their imagined and conceptual ideas, emotions,
observations and experiences, as they discover and
interpret the world.
The Arts contribute to the development of confident
and creative individuals, nurturing and challenging
active and informed citizens. Learning is based
on cognitive, affective and sensory/kinaesthetic
responses to arts practices as students revisit
increasingly complex content, skills and processes
with developing confidence and sophistication during
the course of their early secondary education.
As part of the Catalyst program, a suite of Arts
subjects which meet the requirements of the Western
Australian curriculum are offered in Year 7, 8 and 9.
Year 7
During the course of a semester, core Arts in Year 7
focuses on one compulsory performance component
and one compulsory production component
combined in a semester long Core Arts course,
delivered by a specialist teacher across two arts
learning areas. The two Year 7 learning areas are
Visual Arts and Drama. Other Arts courses can be
selected and studied as part of a student’s Discovery
learning program.
Visual Art
Visual Art incorporates the three fields of art, craft
and design. Students create visual representations
that communicate, challenge and express their
own and others’ ideas, both as artists and audience
The course component is designed to expose
students to the elements and principles of art and
design, as well as a range of skills and processes. The
students undertake a series of projects in which the
elements and principles are constantly explored and
reinforced through practical projects to enable them
to be conscious users and viewers of the building
blocks (elements and principles) of art and design.
The focus of Year 7 Visual Art component is:
• Discovery, experimentation and problem-solving
relevant to visual perception and visual language
• Utilising visual techniques, technologies, practices
and processes
• The ability to recognise and develop cultural
appreciation of visual arts in the past and
contemporary contexts through exploring and
responding to artists and their artworks.
Drama
Drama is the expression and exploration of personal,
emotional, social and cultural worlds, through
role and situation, that engages, entertains and
challenges. Students create meaning as drama
makers, performers and audiences as they engage
with and analyse their own and others’ stories and
points of view.
The course component introduces students to drama
through exploration of communication skills, scripted
text and improvisation. It provides students with an
introduction to drama and further performance skills,
which will enable them to pursue this subject at
greater depth in the future.
The focus of the Year 7 Drama component is:
• Improvisation, role-play, storytelling, play building
and introductory script excerpts
• The development of fundamental skills in voice and
movement
• Drama techniques that are developed through the
exploration of movement, neutral mask, music,
script excerpts and devised tasks
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