Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2006

Yuku Toshi Music–Drama–Art Generating opportunities for students of the Arts to engage in producing and performing original work has been a focus of the Creative Arts Faculty in recent years. Encouraging the collaboration of the art forms (Drama, Music and Visual Art) in hybrid arts performances has also gained momentum. In 2006 students across Years 9 – 12 have begun the exciting and challenging process of devising what promises to be a visually stimulating and aurally captivating performance. “Yuku Toshi – the passing year” has become the focus of this year’s performance inspired by the simplicity and beauty of Japanese culture and artistic forms such as haiku, folktales and traditional Kabuki dance.

Living at the beginning of the twenty-first century in new conditions produced by the electronic era, artists confront a revised cultural and technological context. 1 Year 11 Visual Art students are currently exploring image making through the use of digital technology. Photographs range from surreal, underwater images; submerged Ophelia figures; grunge images in West End and shots taken in the art rooms at School. Photographs are manipulated in Photoshop — image editing software. These digitally manipulated images are then exported into Photostory 3 — a program which enables the creation of a continuous moving presentation, incorporating a variety of special effects and visual transitions. Music, speech and sound effects are able to be embedded into the art work at this point. Through this process students build on digital skills learned in the Junior Art course and are encouraged to see digital technologies as another tool in their technical repertoire. Contemporary art practice demonstrates an increasing use of digital technologies such as photography, web design and video as stand-alone techniques, multimedia, or in combination with other more traditional art media. This growing usage is a reflection of the world which our students inhabit. The Visual Art programme aims to reflect current trends in the wider art community both nationally and internationally as well as engaging students in tasks that reflect real life experiences. The images pictured are reflective of the work created by Year 11 in response to Yuku Toshi. Exploring digital mediums Today’s artists are free to make art with whatever material or technique they can imagine. This freedom creates new opportunities to express ideas and concepts. It also opens up a number of challenges, choices, and decisions for artists. Walker Art Centre “Art Today” http://schools.walkerart.org/ arttoday/index.wac?id=2355 What is a hybrid? A hybrid means something of mixed origin or composition that adds variety or complexity to a system. participants. Drama students in Years 9 and 10 are currently devising an array of movement pieces in response to the changing seasons that merge the characteristics of Japanese Kabuki and contemporary dance. Selected students are composing and arranging instrumental and choral works to be performed by Senior Music classes. The resulting pieces, inspired by traditional Japanese music, will be used as performance assessment for these musicians. Art students in Year 11 are exploring the possibilities of Photostory and image manipulation to further examine the theme of the performance (see accompanying story “Exploring Digital Mediums”). The School community is invited to attend this unique performance on Thursday 18 May.

Our Year 9 students have started a new unit initiated by Mr Offer, involving graphics calculators, robotics, estimation and measurement. “The girls have had to develop their skills in programming in order to drive the robot buggy which is carrying the TI-84 graphics calculator on its back” said Mr Offer. This adds a new dimension to the traditional techniques of measurement, and opens up exciting opportunities for extending the robot technology into the Senior School. Students could program the robots to trace out curves represented by parametric equations using higher-level programming and problem solving skills. recognised by the EOWA that are in place at our School include job sharing arrangements, part-time work for staff in positions of added responsibility, flexible approaches to individual staff needs, generous personal leave and availability of professional development opportunities for part-time staff. Girls Grammar’s family friendly arrangements are available to both female and male staff and assist the School to attract and retain the very best staff. Robots Rule Female Employer of Choice 2006 On Tuesday 21 February the Federal Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) announced the 2006 Employer of Choice for Women awards. Brisbane Girls Grammar School received an award for the first time and shares this honour with only 116 organisations in Australia and only one other Queensland school. Some of the distinctive features

Enriching Accounting Students for Tertiary Study QUT Accounting in High Schools Programme The School hosted the Australian qualifying round of the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 March. After a gruelling battle between nine teams, the two Girls Grammar teams achieved an impressive first and third position. The team of Emma Burrell (12R), Alexandra Price (12G) and Kathryn Zealand (10R) emerged as champions, while the team of Roxanna Gianazza (12H), Leisa Cash (12M) and Gloria Wong (12B) finished in a highly creditable third position. The three girls in the winning team along with two students from Brisbane Grammar School (placed second) have earned the right to represent Australia and will travel to Bratislava, Slovakia in July to compete in the 19th International Young Physicists’ Tournament against nations from six continents. Gloria was named as first reserve for this Australian Team. Underpinning this great achievement is the high level of participation by girls in science at this School. Over 80 per cent of the senior cohort study one or more science subjects. This compares with only 15.2 per cent Australia-wide (Dobson 2003). Competitions such as IYPT, reinforce the real world relevance of science and provide opportunities for our students to extend their classroom experience. Dobson, I.R. (2003). Science at the Crossroads? A study of trends in university science from Dawkins to now 1989 – 2002. Retrieved November1, 2004 from the Australian Council of Deans of Science Website: http://www.acds.edu.au/ Grammar Girls are Serious about Science

The roles of composer, choreographer, dancer, designer, performer and musician have been embraced by all

Year 12 students are offered the opportunity to take an enrichment course as part of their Accounting syllabus, which allows them to complete a university subject and furthermore gain credit for tertiary studies. The School is now in its sixth consecutive year of offering this opportunity to students through the Queensland University of Technology’s Accounting in High Schools Programme. Accounting students can elect to study QUT’s Bachelor of Business, first year Accounting subject (BSB110) while completing Year 12. The course is free of HECS fees and may allow the

students to use this subject as a credit towards a qualification in a university course at QUT or other tertiary institution. Students are invited to the Gardens Point campus for an introduction to the course and are expected to attend some lectures towards the end of the course and to sit examinations with other university students. This “diluted” experience of university is an excellent introduction to university style study and life on a large university campus. University can be a daunting experience but having survived this challenge, these accounting students feel more confident approaching tertiary studies.

1 Lovejoy, M. (2004). Art in the Electronic Age. New York: Routledge.

10 grammar gazette : may 2006

grammar gazette : may 2006 11