Creative and Performing Arts

The CAPA faculty offers our high potential learners the opportunity to explore their world creatively. In Drama, Music and Visual Arts students learn, create, design, perform, analyse and critique a range of art forms. Students build critical thinking and problem solving skills through engaging in innovative and collaborative learning and practice. Student work is regularly nominated and selected for OnStage, Encore and ArtExpress which showcase exemplary HSC major works from across the state.

Students must study 100 hours of both music and visual arts during Years 7 to 10. They also have an opportunity to further develop their knowledge and skills in other art forms through elective subjects including drama, dance, photography and visual design. Students can then select from a range of courses in Years 11 to 12.

Our CAPA Vision Statement

Through the study of the Creative and Performing Arts, inspire and engage students to question, reflect and think critically about the world around them and to encourage them to connect their learning. To support students to build confidence to take more creative risks, step outside of their comfort zone and extend themselves in the development of their creative and intellectual capacities. The faculty will promote the importance and ability to work as part of team and improve group problem solving skills through collaborative and experiential learning, encouraging students to build resilience in adapting to an ever- changing world.  

Drama Curriculum

The study of Drama develops students' confidence in public speaking and performance skills. It extends and refines their communication and collaboration skills, as well as developing creative, critical and analytical skills.

Stages 4 and 5 

Drama is offered as an elective subject in Years 8, 9 and 10.The junior syllabus is a broad-based study of drama in which students may study:

• Improvisation and playbuilding
• Dramatic forms and styles
• Reading and writing scripts as texts for performance
• Performance spaces and conventions of theatre
• Technical aspects of production
• Experience of dramatic presentations
• Discussion, reading and writing about drama and theatre

Stage 6

Drama is offered in Year 11 and Year 12 as a 2-unit HSC course. The study of Drama in stage 6 will develop the talents and capacities of all students – physical, emotional, intellectual, social, creative and expressive – as well as developing self-confidence and self-esteem.

This syllabus provides opportunities for students to develop a range of skills and the opportunity to concentrate on areas of personal interest. It is designed for students who have completed the Drama Years 7–10 Elective course and for those who are studying Drama for the first time.

Music Curriculum

Music offers courses across Year 7-12. A broad tutorial program is available to all students and the department provides a wide range of extra-curricular performance ensemble opportunities. The faculty promotes involvement in an eclectic range of musical styles, allowing students from a wide range of abilities to experience the joy of music through compositions, musicology and performance.  

Stages 4 and 5

The mandatory course is offered in Year 7 with specific performance areas targeted in keyboard and guitar. Composition is introduced and developed throughout the year. The additional study course is offered in Years 8 - 10 and provides a solid foundation for the preliminary and HSC courses.

Stage 6

Music 2 is offered as a preliminary course in Year 11 and as a HSC course in Year 12. The Music Extension course is available in Year 12.

Visual Arts Curriculum

The study of Visual Arts seeks to contribute to the understanding and appreciation of the visual arts by providing students with a range of creative lessons, excursions and exhibitions that explore drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic and digital art. Visual Arts engages students in the practices of art criticism, art history and their own artmaking practice through the four frames (subjective, cultural, structural and postmodern) and the artist, artwork, world, audience relationship of the conceptual framework.

Stages 4 and 5

Visual Arts provides opportunities for students to enjoy the making and studying of art. It builds an understanding of the role of art in all forms of media, both in the contemporary and historical world, and enables students to represent their ideas and interests in artworks. Visual Arts enables students to respond critically and creatively to the world, in written and visual form.

The ideas explored include:

• People – portraiture, the self, family and friends
• Places – school, camp, home, natural, suburban, urban and virtual environments
• Objects – still life, natural and man-made forms
• Other Living Things – animals, sea life, imaginary and mythical creatures
• Events - personal, social, cultural and political

The forms explored include drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, graphic and digital media. 

Stage 6

The preliminary course offers a broad range of experiences in Visual Arts and extends to the increasingly sustained, independent and interpretative focus of the HSC course. Visual Arts engages students in the practices of art making, art criticism and art history. Students develop their own artworks, culminating in a Body of Work in the HSC course that reflects students’ knowledge and understanding of the artworld, and artmaking practice. From this foundation, the students resolve a conceptually strong and technically sensitive work. Additionally, students critically and historically investigate artworks, critics and historians from Australia as well as those from other cultures, traditions and historical eras.

Visual Design

This is a 1 Unit course offered in Year 11. The Visual Design course encourages students to explore the practices of graphic, wearable, product and interior/exterior design in contemporary society. 

Photography, Video and Digital Media

This is a 1 Unit course offered in Year 11. The course encourages students to develop a range of skills through the acquisition of techniques, such as traditional wet photography (darkroom), digital photography and video.