THE ARTS AT SVCC
In this edition of the College Chronicle, we focus on the Arts curriculum across all year levels in our College. We are so very proud of not only our Arts program, but of all of our students unique creativity and ability across so many genres of the Arts. Students are encouraged to progressively develop in their skills while at the College and we have seen so many past graduates go on to develop further and excel in creative vocations.
Recently, the College has invested in the Adobe Creative Suite for our students. It is currently being rolled out for all Year 10 ,11 and 12 students. The program will allow students to have access to professional video editing, Illustration application, design applications in page designs, website design, photo editing with Lightroom and Photoshop editing for creativity. We are excited to see how students will use these resources to increase their technology skills and apply professionalism to the presentation of works not only in the Arts, but all subjects. It is a reminder that all students are expected to be using laptop computers with the recommended specifications to be able to have access to these applications.
Jenny Nelson, Principal
The Arts continue to flourish with a passionate group of teachers and talented students in Music, Drama, Performing Arts, Visual Art, Photography and Fashion Design. We are always amazed at the unique creativity and fantastic abilities of our students each year across all of the Arts subjects. In April, we enjoyed seeing the Morphett Vale Primary Choir perform at our special Easter Assembly and the Aldinga Primary choir sang beautifully in an assembly in May. With special choir performances coming up in the next weeks, please look out for a Chronicle article about those events.
While each of the Arts is very practical in application, the rigour of academic understanding in literacy is not to be underestimated. Each Arts subject has its own set of language that students learn to communicate in written and verbal applications. Evaluative and analytical writing is required in all of the Arts subject areas and at a SACE Stage 1 and 2 level, the theoretical components are assessed in a higher degree than the practical. This is why students who do well in the Arts have attained high ATAR scores.
We love giving our students an audience and we are really proud of them and their achievements. All going well, with COVID restrictions being at a minimum, we look forward to celebrating all of the Arts with our College community, family and friends at the end of year “Creative Arts Extravaganza”.
Michelle West, Arts Faculty Leader
VISUAL ART: SENIOR SECONDARY
YEAR 10 SELF PORTRAITS
Year 10 Art students have just completed designing and making artistic clay teapots and are now exploring charcoal portraiture techniques on brown paper. They are focusing on learning the special nuances and details in drawing techniques in the eyes, mouth, nose and hair as well as controlling the charcoal mark making to vary in tonal value without smudging. Their portraits are looking sensational and we look forward to sharing the finished results later.
YEAR 11 and 12 VISUAL ART
Year 11 and Year 12 Visual Art students are currently doing trials to consider what they will create for their first major artwork. Their folio work has been extensive with research, documentation of their visual thinking and trialling ideas in an extensive range of mediums, compositions and styles to ensure that their major artwork is dynamic and unique. This is going to serve them well in meeting the highest achievements in the SACE practical assessment criteria. The students' ideas vary from oversized surreal insects to exploring aerial dancers' poses and the fall of fabrics, surreal hyper-realistic contemporary still lifes, and mental health issues. As the students conceptual ideas deepen, their visual ideas become really exciting.
Michelle West, Senior Secondary Art Teacher
YEAR 11 and 12 CREATIVE ARTS: PHOTOGRAPHY
The new 2021 Photography course has been such an exciting journey where the students have learnt many new skills and experimented with a large range of subject matter and styles. They have also been learning and exploring editing tools to create some outstanding photographic imagery. We recently blackened the art room and experimented with ‘light trails’ using torches and sparklers. The students used tripods and slow shutter speeds to capture the light over a period of time. This technique has spurred some of the students to explore this further for their major photographic work. We also experimented using different filters over the camera lenses to create some exciting outcomes, which several students are planning to implement into their future photography.
Michelle West, Creative Arts Teacher
YEAR 11 and 12 DESIGN TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING: FASHION DESIGN
With only three months to go before the Australian Teenage Fashion Awards event, our students are in full sewing mode to be able to meet the deadline. The Fashion Design room has a newly acquired industrial sewing machine which is a great tool for our students; especially those who are creating bulky work in the artistic categories of fashion. A test of the machine showed that it sewed through 12 layers of denim without any sign of struggling and so we look forward to seeing the designs that the students will be able to create with this machine. We have students creating garments in the "Casual Wear", "Society and Environment" and "Wearable Art" categories. The students' designs are all unique and we can’t wait to share with you their finished works.
Michelle West, Creative Arts Teacher
CREATING IN 3D
VISUAL ART: MIDDLE YEARS
The Element of Form: The Year 7 students at both campuses have been investigating the Art element of Form by working with clay to create 3D sculptures. The Year 7 students are also creating Two Point Perspective artworks to understand how to add depth and the appearance of form to 2D artworks. Their Essential Questions for this unit of work is:
How do you depict the element of Form in Art? How can an artwork have depth?"
The Year 7 students are currently completing their final clay sculpture. They were able to make an animal or other subject of their choice.
The Year 8 Art students at Morphett Vale are creating their own linocut printmaking designs, inspired by Australian artist Margaret Preston. They are currently at the carving stage of the process. The Essential Questions that were investigated were:
How is Australian art influenced by society? How does skill and technique enable the creative process?"
The Year 9 Art students at Morphett Vale are completing a unit of work on Still Life Drawing. This semester they have also learnt about Portraiture and Packaging Design. Their Essential Questions were:
How does perspective influence art? How do artists represent people? How does art communicate?"
Melody Parker, Middle Years Art Teacher
JUNIOR PICASSOS
PRIMARY VISUAL ART
Visual Art is taught by the PG teachers for Foundation to Year 6 at Morphett Vale and from Foundation to Year 5 at Aldinga. Ms Parker teaches Year 6 Art at Aldinga. The Primary teachers inspire their students with engaging art activities that produce unique and creative artworks. Thank you to Mr Avery (Year 3/4 ALD), Mrs Dunn (Year 2 ALD), Miss Harvey (Year 5/6 MV) and Mrs Harland (Foundation MV) for sharing your classes' work.
The Foundation class has been studying a UbD unit of work called "Change" and created their flower artworks as part of this unit. The Essential Questions were:
What is a living thing? How do living things change over time? What is my role in God's creation?"
Year 2 Aldinga: How can I use the 7 elements of art to create art works about me?"
Year 3/4 Aldinga: Which different materials can be used together? How can techniques influence your artwork?"
Year 5/6 Morphett Vale: How does nature influence Japanese art? What are the different techniques used in Japanese art?"
Melody Parker, Year 6 Art Teacher
Lights, camera, action!
PERFORMING ARTS
Year 5/6 and 7 Morphett Vale - Film Making: The Year 5, 6, and 7 students at Morphett Vale have been exploring film in Performing Arts this term. The students have been developing their skills in visual literacy and building a useful vocabulary of screen and cinematic terms. After having analysed shots, angles, music, editing and more from clips of different movies, advertisements, short films and movie trailers, students are now creating their own film media. They are fully committing to the process, harnessing their creative flare, navigating the challenges of working in teams, and getting hands-on with the making of costumes and props.
The overarching Essential Questions for Performing Arts this Semester are:
What role does Performing Arts play in society and cultures?"
What essential skills can engaging in the Performing Arts teach us?"
The Essential Question for Year 7 students for this unit of work has been:
Do all communications hold implied or implicit meaning?"
Year 7 Aldinga - Music Composition: The Year 7 students at Aldinga campus have been analysing elements of music, looking for patterns in music scores, and thinking about how music can make us feel. One of the Essential Questions we have been asking is:
How can music without lyrics, be interpreted to convey meaning?"
The last few weeks students have been working on composing their own pieces of music. The students have enjoyed being able to express themselves in this way, experimenting with sounds they like, and all taking their own individual approaches to creating a musical masterpiece.
Caitlin Gardner, Performing Arts Teacher & Learning Support Teacher
THe show must go on!
SeCONDARY Drama
In Week 1 of Term 3 the Year 11 and 12 Drama students will perform their major performance of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in the Harvest Church Hall on Wednesday 21 July at 7:00pm. Admission is free. We invite you to join us!
In 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Senior Drama students were unable to showcase their performance skills in front of a live theatre audience. This year we look forward to having a bumper audience of parents, friends, guests and fellow students to enjoy this classic production. As a part of the new SACE Drama curriculum requirements the Senior Drama students have rehearsed their play under the banner of their own production company called "A Number 23 Production".
The Year 9 Drama students at Morphett Vale have been very busy preparing for their upcoming major performance of Oreo and Omelette; a tasty re-make of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The Essential Question throughout the process of rehearsals has been:
Can live comedy be a force of healing and blessing to the community?"
The Year 9 performance will be held in Week 8, Friday the 18 June at 2:00pm in the Harvest Church Hall. All are welcome. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll feel hungry for more afterwards!
Peter Kalfas, Head of Performing Arts
MAKING MELODIES
SECONDARy MUSIC
Year 8 and 9 Music Aldinga: In Music at Aldinga this semester, the Year 8 students have quickly become more confident reading music notation and playing instruments in their class concert band, with performance preparation now in full swing. The Year 9 Music students have explored the use of harmony, expression and repetition in music, then used their knowledge and skills to analyse worship songs as well as prepare engaging individual or small group performances.
Year 12 and 11 Music: Year 12 Music students have been exploring composition, live performance and comparative analysis techniques, all while rehearsing their own individual music pieces. They have each selected a specific area of music interest which will form the basis of their major exploration work, involving further analysis, performance and recording of their skills. Students studying music in Year 11 have created their own interesting pieces in a Minimalist style, prepared a solo performance program and are currently refining and recording their informative ‘Trip Down Memory Lane’ radio programs.
Worship Music Team: Senior and Whole School assemblies at the Morphett Vale campus are richly enhanced by our student-led Worship Music Team. Dedicated students from both campuses in Year 11 and 12 rehearse, pray and encourage each other regularly as they select and learn worship songs that they sing, play and share at assemblies. They even requested, and all attended, a rehearsal day in the last holidays to have more time to prepare together. They are such a blessing to our College.
Instrumental Music: Did you know skilled instrumental and vocal tutors provide individual lessons, teaching a range of instruments, on both of our campuses each week? Learning an instrument over a period of time can benefit children’s confidence, flexibility, cognitive development and academic skills, plus open a world of creative expression to them. Term 3 is often a great time to start, so if you would like to find out more, take a look at the SVCC Website Music Program page. To ask questions or book lessons in for your child, please fill in the Contact Form there.
Janette Mayne, Secondary Music Teacher & Katie Rex, Performing Arts Teacher
Sing a song of joY
ChoirS and VOCAL ENSEMBLE
At Southern Vales, the Arts are promoted through the performances of our magnificent choirs and Worship Band. We have a Junior Primary Choir for students in Foundation to Year 3, a Primary Choir for Year 4-6, and a Senior Vocal Ensemble for students in Year 7 to Year 12. The Worship Band is open to all Upper Primary and Secondary students. The choirs and Senior Vocal Ensemble are run by the talented Mrs Katie Rex.
In choir practices, the students learn a repertoire of songs to perform throughout the year at assemblies and special events. Our Morphett Vale Choirs were able to perform as part of the Easter Assembly last term and the Aldinga Choirs have both performed at assemblies across the semester so far.
We have been working on building confidence and enjoying the experience of performing. It is our hope that if it's clear we are enjoying the performance, then the joy and enthusiasm will rub off on the audience. We have incorporated a lot of movement into our performances this year and some selected students have been given the opportunity to shine with solo parts.
We look forward to singing again for you soon!
Katie Rex, Performing Arts Teacher