Year 8
The Year 8 program is designed as an introductory course aimed at fostering enthusiasm, self-confidence and enjoyment within the visual arts. Students experiment with a variety of media by completing projects in the major studio areas of drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture. Students are also encouraged to develop their observational drawing skills and are taught the importance of the elements and principles of art and design in their own work and in the art work of others.
Year 9
The Year 9 course builds on and extends the skills learnt in the Year 8 introductory course .Within the main studio areas students are again expected to develop ideas by observing the world around them and then to extend these concepts through imagination, and creative thinking. The main studio areas of painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture are again covered in this course, however, the media and processes are more challenging.
A willingness to learn new skills and experiment with ideas in art making is essential for those students who elect to undertake the Year 10 Visual Arts course as they are the students who are most likely to go on to complete a TEE Art or Art and Design course in years 11 and 12. In preparation for their choices in upper-school the year 10 course aims to develop the students analytical and practical skills as well as encourage imagination, exploration and creative thinking so that their concepts are brought to fruition.
With the exception of Year 10 where the student works through projects over a semester, the projects in years 8 and 9 are independent from term to term to cater for those students who choose to do art for more than a term. Each project has four components planned according to the Curriculum Framework and covers the key Arts Outcomes.
Year 11&12
Art combines knowledge, imagination, appreciation and evaluation. These aspects are necessary for perception, creative thinking and self-expression, for critical awareness and the development of practical skills in the visual arts.
The upper school course sees the student developing their processes and skills in a number of disciplines in year 11 before specialising in yr 12.
In conjunction with the practical aspects students cover features and contexts of national and international art and periods in the theory component of the course.