Presenting the year so far in the primary arts at Northbridge

Presenting the year so far in the primary arts at Northbridge What an exciting start to the year it has been in the primary arts department at Northbridge International School Cambodia, although not without its challenges.

What an exciting start to the year it has been in the primary arts department at Northbridge International School Cambodia, although not without its challenges.

We all appreciate how challenging online learning can be, and to some extent this is even more apparent in the arts subjects.

You may wonder why we at Northbridge emphasise importance on the arts. I wanted to share with you these four reasons from the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examination board in the UK:

1. The arts make self starters and develop emotional intelligence
   All require the student to set their own agenda from within themselves, rather than follow set topics as in other subjects. They have to make independent decisions all the way, and be self-critical. They also need to be brave in exposing their creations, and accept criticism. Working in teams makes students into good communicators.
    
2. The arts are stretching
   Music, art and drama require long hours of hard work and dedication. Students have to pay great attention to detail, to perfect and redo. Putting on a play, exhibition or concert takes strong organisational skills.
    
3. Arts students are highly sought-after by employers
   Many employers now actively seek those who have studied the arts. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, was fond of saying his success was due to his hiring artists and musicians fascinated by technology rather than computer geeks.
   Top talent management agency, The Curve Group specialising in financial and business services, concurs: “Employees with an arts degree have developed more quickly in their roles from the start. They have discipline, confidence and can accept criticism.”
    
4. Arts ‘reach the parts other subjects can’t reach’
   The arts develop the broader dimensions of the human being – mind, body and soul. The arts can express the inexpressible and make sense of things that otherwise do not seem to. This can be very fulfilling and helps us function as human beings – which can only be good for society as a whole.

So what are we doing here in Northbridge in the primary arts department?

Well, Grade 5 in Dance with Mr Alan have been working on coordination, flexibility, and balance. They have learnt a variety of house and hip-hop dances and have also explored the fundamentals of ballet and core-conditioning exercises.

Grade 4 have been working with Ms Tara in Drama and have explored the key concept of function through creating their own character from their imagination. 

Through various performances, they have applied their knowledge of voice, facial expressions, gestures and body language to create a final monologue from the perspective of their character preparing for an event.

In Visual Arts with Mr Mike, students have been creating and responding to a variety of art. Early primary students (K-2) have focused on drawing portraits and have studied a variety of different portrait artists. Upper Primary Students (4-5) have been studying photography and digital art techniques.

In Music with me (Mr Clarke) have done our very best to keep up with our singing and rhythm practice – vital for any music lesson. The challenges of doing this online are numerous but the students have responded so well with this, and each class has even been able to learn a song for the upcoming International Day through these digital means.

Across primary, all children are getting the chance to create and compose their own music and get the chance to be exposed to various different types of music and begin to analyse the fundamentals of music and explore their opinion and reaction to it. They also are all furthering their music reading skills, which gives them huge dexterity in any later musical pursuits they do in school, or later in life. 

The fundaments of all the Arts are nicely intertwined with various PYP units that the students study. 

For example in ‘Who We Are’ in Visual Arts students have discussed the concept of creating a safe and inclusive artist environment where everyone feels confident to try new forms of art and to share their art with others. They discussed how everybody is capable of creating art and how that we are all unique as artists. 

Another example is in Grade 3, where they are studying the unit ‘How We Express Ourselves’. They have focused on comparing ancient cave art to modern street art/graffiti in Visual Arts, and in Music have been exploring and comparing music from three-hundred years ago to today, and more importantly discussing why the students like or dislike it.