CAPA at Asquith Boys High School
Studying the creative arts, students learn to appreciate, compose, listen, make and perform. Each art form has its own unique knowledge and skills, elements or concepts as well as a capacity to inspire and enrich lives.
HOW DO WE FOSTER AND EXTEND THE TALENTS OF OUR STUDENTS?
Students have the opportunity to showcase their talents in a range of activities such as the annual CAPA Showcase which is a whole school exhibition open to family and friends, MAD NIGHT encompassing the music ensembles and stage bands along with elective Music and Drama students, Formal assemblies, lunchtime concerts, gallery walk along corridors of G Block and the main office. Students also have incursions and excursions such as Music Camp, Schools Spectacular, African Drumming Incursion, Sculpting, Ceramic and Painting Workshops, and photography excursions to Cockatoo Island to name a few.
The CAPA department offers the following subjects:
Students must study 100 hours of Drama, and 100 hours of both music and visual arts during Years 7 to 10. They also have an opportunity to further develop their knowledge and skills in other art forms through elective subjects including computing technology, drama, dance, photography and visual design. Students can then select from a range of courses in Years 11 to 12.
What we do in CAPA
The Creative Arts faculty offers opportunities for all our boys to develop practical skills across a diverse range of exciting subjects such as Computing Technology, Drama, Music, Visual Arts, Design, Photography and Ceramics. Our boys are taught to work as individuals and also in small teams, building the necessary vocational skills required to operate in the workplace as functioning and contributing members of a work environment.
Our staff are dedicated, experienced and dynamic. They offer experiences, both inside and outside the classroom, that cater to the particular interests of students and are exciting and highly motivating. Where possible we encourage our boys to participate in the wider artistic and performing community in the belief that this provides an authentic experience that connects them directly to the world. We believe that everyone has an untapped creative and/or performing ability that just needs to be located and developed. Finding that spark is key to building self-esteem, so important for the development of resilient young men.
The theoretical aspects of all of our courses are taught alongside and embedded into the teaching of computing technology, and musical, dramatic, artistic and photographic practice. We understand that practical work is what is exciting about our courses and have developed strategies to explicitly teach the necessary writing skills in ways that are relevant and prepare our boys for the demands of their external examinations.
