Our collaboration with the Juilliard School has been designed to give our students a deep engagement with music and drama, and to enhance their cultural literacy across the curriculum. It enriches our Performing Arts offer with the artistic values, traditions and expertise of Juilliard. Our students will use the Juilliard Core Curriculum which has been developed by Nord Anglia teachers in conjunction with Juilliard to develop skills such as critical thinking, resilience, risk taking and discipline which they can use in their learning in any subject. It has been great to have Andrea back in Pudong and know that her visit has not only inspired students and teachers, but will have a long lasting impact on the learning that takes place in our Performing Arts department.
Following on from the first year of our collaboration with Juilliard, it was important for Nord Anglia to evaluate the educational efficacy on students and teachers. The report, The Juilliard-Nord Anglia Performing Arts Programme: An Evaluation One Year On, outlines the impact on transferrable skills through the embedded Juilliard music curriculum and is available here.
We are also delighted to see that over twenty of our students in Years 6 and 7 are interested in attending the trip to MIT taking place at the end of April. We will be announcing the details of the application process early next week and look forward to seeing their STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) skills being put to the test!
Following the STEAM theme, we will be having a whole school STEAM Day on Thursday 27th October. Students in Years 7-9 will participate in a carousel of three activities, involving the Big Draw, designing a rocket car and making a hoop glider! Students in Years 10-13 will participate in the Big Draw but will also have lessons to ensure that they remain focused on their I/GCSE and IB courses.
Next Friday 28th October will be a celebration of festivals and students are able to dress up in costumes to celebrate either Halloween or Diwali. The theme for the assembly on this day will be festivals and the cross-cultural similarities and differences between Diwali and Halloween. Students will be able to make a voluntary contribution towards our service work in Tanzania.
We hope that you all remain dry this weekend!
Therese Andrews and Carol Camargo