Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2015

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development of a production of his play, A Beautiful Life , providing insight into the text, directorial suggestions and a creative dialogue about this complex work. In 2012 and 2013 the award-winning Fulbright Scholarship recipient Lachlan Philpott worked with students, writing and supporting the direction of a play commissioned for Girls Grammar, The Chosen . The Curriculum Music programme works regularly with visiting artists, including the acclaimed ensemble Topology and song-writing clinician Pat Pattison to support and inspire students in their programme, to create their own world music. Last year, senior students scored original music to accompany a screening of the film Life of Pi , and as the film played out on screen they performed their compositions in their own ensembles with second-by-second accuracy over two hours. In aspects such as original song writing and ensemble composition a number of students have been finalists and winners in state music awards. Composition is a central component of Curriculum Music as a means of teaching fundamentals and as an extension of music protocols. Perhaps more importantly,

Physical theatre specialist Noa Rotem works with Year 11 students.

composition provides students with the skills and confidence to write, produce and record their own music as a reflection of, and on, their life journey. As music students develop a toolkit of skills, rather than ’what to know’, the focus is on ’what to do with what we know’. This expansion and transformation of teaching and learning has brought all the arts at Girls Grammar into a very contemporary and dynamic learning framework. The realisation of BYOD — bring your own device — in the School has meant that students can now access and be guided into the external world and worlds of theatre, music and art to model not only the ‘what’ but the ’how’ and the ‘why’. The very physical environs of the Creative Learning Centre with multiple balconies and stairwells play a pivotal role as a live auditorium for working, rehearsal, display and performance beyond the classroom, infusing the learning with life. In this contemporary school setting, the pursuit of the arts as an academic and aesthetic exercise goes far deeper into ensuring our students learn and experience from their arts to enrich their lives and perspectives as players in the local and global community.

AUTUMN ISSUE / 2015