The Arts enrich our lives culturally, physically, emotionally, and socially. This unique collection of creative disciplines inspire, entertain, instruct and challenge the way we all perceive our world and everything and everyone within it. When young people engage in an Arts education they become imaginative and flexible thinkers, developing lateral problem solving processes and learning to see things from a range of different perspectives. The Arts is critical to the development of confidence and students’ sense of identity and self-worth.
At St Peter’s Girls’ School we offer Visual Arts, Design, Dance, Drama and Music through both curriculum and co-curriculum offerings. From the Early Learning Centre to SACE Stage 2 our students have the opportunity to participate in structured, systematic Arts programmes which include creating, making and presenting Art works. Through participation in ensembles, choirs, productions, exhibitions, performance, workshops, theatre attendance, critical analysis and discussion, visiting artists, choral celebrations, individual and group tuition, practice, competition and showcase, the Arts builds and shapes our students, and indeed impacts the wider Saints community. At St Peter’s Girls’ School, with our beautiful new Arts Centre as the symbol of our creative hub, we embrace The Arts as an inspiring, innovative and critical body of learning.
Our Arts programme at Saints will be further enhanced in 2012 by the opening of our elite
Saints Performing Arts Academy (SPAA)
Amanda Kimber (Head of Arts)
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Dance is an Arts discipline that challenges both the body and the mind. Students are able to participate in
co-curricular Dance throughout their time in the Junior School, with weekly classes. Through the Middle and Senior School curriculum, Dance is offered as a separate discipline, building students’ physical, theoretical, creative and performance skills. This holistic Dance education and training culminates in Dance at
SACE Stage 2.
Formal Drama education begins in Year 7 at St Peter’s Girls’ School and can be studied until Year 12. Students participate in class workshops and performances, engage in script interpretation and delivery and explore the history, theories and practices developed over hundreds of years of dramatic theatre. Drama can be taken as a subject at SACE Stage 2 level or as part of the IB Diploma (from 2013).
The Music Department at St Peter’s Girls is a very busy and vibrant place to participate and expand ones passion for music. In 2011 our girls have performed in over 40 different concerts, community engagements and competitions including the Generations in Jazz Festival in Mt Gambier and the SA Schools Band and Orchestra Festival. We have had world renowned artists including Jane Peters run workshops with our girls and have also joined musical forces with the boys from Prince Alfred College in several concerts.
Visual Art is taught throughout the school curriculum from the Early Learning Centre to Year 12. In the senior years students can choose to specialise in Design or Art, taking either to SACE Stage 2 level. Students of all ages explore a breadth of artistic medium from paints and charcoals to paper machê and clay. While the emphasis is on process and experimentation, product is celebrated and presented constantly, our biennial Arts Alive exhibition of the work of the junior school and the annual Year 12 Art Exhibition, providing colour, intrigue and insight into the extraordinary creativity of Saint’s developing artists.