The Arts

At St Monica’s we believe The Arts have the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and encouraging them to reach their creative and expressive potential. The five Arts subjects in the Australian Curriculum provide opportunities for students to learn how to create, design, represent, communicate and share their imagined and conceptual ideas, emotions, observations and experiences.

Rich in tradition, the Arts play a major role in the development and expression of cultures and communities, locally, nationally and globally. Students communicate ideas in current, traditional and emerging forms and use Arts knowledge and understanding to make sense of their world.

Throughout the Australian Arts Curriculum there is a focus on valuing, respecting and exploring the significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to Australia’s arts heritage and contemporary arts practices, through their distinctive ways of representing and communicating knowledge, traditions and experience.

The Australian Arts Curriculum comprises five subjects:

Dance: awakens and heightens an awareness of movement sensations to develop a kinaesthetic sense and develops a knowledge and understanding of the human body and an increasing skill in its use. Dance also develops gross and fine motor skills and an increasing level of fitness.

Drama: requires students, through enactment, to view life from many perspectives, allowing students to anticipate, confront and deal with societal and personal issues. It also develops interaction skills using negotiation, cooperation and collaboration and is an effective medium for increasing self-confidence, self-esteem and self-awareness.

Media Arts: assists students to gain a deeper understanding about characterisations and representation of the community through engagement with a variety of 

media: images, sounds and texts. Students use a range of media technologies to express their ideas and share their stories with others. Media Arts is an essential area for critical and creative thinking within the context of an ever-changing digital media landscape.

Music: assists students to develop a knowledge and understanding of the elements and concepts of music and is an essential form of communication. It develops aural awareness, perception and enjoyment of music.

Visual Arts: includes processes of visual thinking, visual problem solving and the development of concepts and technical skills that enables students to diversify their skills and adapt to future changes in society.