Arts

Junior School students, experience many different ways to express themselves through visual art. This is an integral part of the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), as it provides a way for students to communicate and explore the world around them. Our students are stimulated to think and to articulate their thoughts in new ways, using a variety of media and technologies, and are offered opportunities to understand art through historical, social, and cultural perspectives.

Throughout the PYP, art engagements are driven by Units of Inquiry and student experiences. In particular, students are invited to create art and to respond to it. Students are exposed to a wide range of techniques and ways of expressing themselves artistically including architecture, book-making, collage, costume design, drawing, graphic design, film, illustration, industrial design, installation, jewellery, land art, mask making, and mixed media creations. Wherever possible, our students have the opportunity to experience visual arts beyond their own creations; we achieve this by inviting artists into our school and visiting galleries and museums. Mulgrave students in the PYP appreciate the many aspects of visual arts created locally and globally, now and in the past, by a diverse range of people.

The PYP dance programme provides consistent and sequential instruction, creating a platform to build on past experience. Weekly classes incorporate fundamental principles of a dance class, choreography in a range of multi-cultural genres, and theory. Students gain an understanding of the basic elements of dance, such as body, space, time, energy, and form. Ongoing inquiry revolves around the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs, and values through movement and other arts. Creativity and an appreciation of the dance aesthetic is expanded. Students learn about connecting their body, mind, and emotions, and develop confidence to share their artistic gifts. 

Music in the Primary Years Programme (PYP) is a true celebration and investigation of all things musical, enabling students to engage with, and respond to, music and musical traditions from around the world. They begin to use their knowledge and skills to compose and create performable works as well as learn how to play advanced instruments while focussing on creativity and play as a fundamental part of musical expression. Lessons and activities authentically connect with content that students are learning in their homerooms and other subject areas so they can build their knowledge across disciplines and develop a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. By writing an original story and then composing music to go along with it, learning about the history of music and musical games from around the world, and experimenting with the scientific properties of materials as they build their own instruments using the design cycle, students explore the full breadth and depth of the programme. Performance takes on a larger role in the PYP, with students showcasing their abilities and comprehension through solo, small group, and full class performances during their music time, as well as on stage during concerts for their peers and families.

Our music programme allows students to discover a broad range of music experiences including classifying and analysing sounds, composing, exploring body music, listening, playing instruments, singing, reading and writing music using traditional and nontraditional notation, performing, and recording. 

Co-curricular music opportunities are offered before and after school. For Junior School students, they include choirs (Grades 2+), bands (Grade 5+), and string ensembles (Grade 4+).