Catalyst • Junior Secondary Curriculum • Handbook 2019
Core
Subject
through exploring and expanding their understanding
of their world and other worlds.
The Arts
The course 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 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 focus of Year 7 Visual Art course is:
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.
• 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.
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.
Music Concepts and Creation
Music has the capacity to engage, entertain,
challenge, inspire and empower students.
Studying music stimulates imaginative and
innovative responses, critical thinking and aesthetic
understanding, and encourages students to reach
their creative and expressive potential.
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.
Music exists distinctively in every culture and is a basic
expression of human experience. Students’ active
participation in music, individually and collaboratively,
draws on their own traditions and life experiences.
These experiences help them to appreciate and
meaningfully engage with music practices and
traditions of other times, places, cultures and contexts.
Students do not need to have any prior experience in
Music to achieve well in, and enjoy, this subject.
Year 7
During the course of a semester, core Arts in Year
7 focuses on one compulsory performance course
and one compulsory production course each term,
delivered by a specialist teacher of that subject. The
two Year 7 courses are Visual Arts and Music. Other
Arts courses can be selected and studied as part of a
student’s Discovery learning program.
The focus of Music Concepts and Creation is:
• The study of the world of music composition
through experimentation with the elements of
music (sound, rhythm, melody, harmony and form)
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
members. They develop perceptual and conceptual
understanding, critical reasoning and practical skills
• The teaching of a variety of music software
packages (Mixcraft, Sibelius, DJ Pro) to compose
pieces for diverse groupings of instruments across
many different genres and contexts
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