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This area of learning comprises the subjects of Art and Design, Drama and Music. It provides rich opportunities for developing creativity, allowing children to express their ideas, feelings and interpretations of the world through pictures, sound, drama and dance.
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Music
“Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity.”
Music plays an essential role in the celebration of culture and life at St. Columba’s and has a very high profile in both classical and traditional.
We believe in and deliver a high- quality music lesson from Primary 1 through to Primary 7 and aim that our music programme engages and inspires our pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement in addition it improves children’s health and wellbeing.
Alongside our enriching classroom music lessons P1 and P2 pupils also enjoy weekly Primary Movement lessons taught through the medium of music and rhyme. Research indicates that this excellent Primary Movement programme had a significant effect on the development of fine motor control and leads to improved academic attainments in reading, spelling and mathematics.
Our pupils also have the opportunities to experience music through Nativity plays, Musical Productions and Class and school Assemblies.
As our pupils progress though the school they also have the opportunity to avail of weekly piano and tin whistle lessons in key stage 1 and in Key Stage 2 the opportunity to avail of weekly guitar and bodhran lessons.
We also have 2 peripatetic tutors and our key stage 2 children may avail of weekly tuition for classical music lesson for the violin, flute, clarinet, trumpet or French horn.
Children have the opportunity to enter public exams/grades.
We also have a well-established and very talented School Choir. Our children benefit from the amazing musical talents and expertise of our wonderful Music Team, Mrs Bradley, Mrs Kelly, Mr Scullion and Mr Gribbin. Under their tutelage our very talented and successful school choir always creates a magical atmosphere during the celebration of school events and church events.
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In addition, our Choir also has exciting opportunities to represent the school, through the Peace Proms at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and through local community celebrations.
We believe in developing out pupils interests and talents to the highest standard and offer enriching after school music clubs throughout the year which include Sing Club, Samba and African Drumming provided by our teaching staff and tutors from Glasgowbury.
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Art and Design
In St Columba’s we believe the purpose of Art and Design education is to give pupils the skills, concepts and knowledge necessary for them to express their responses to ideas and experiences in a visual or tactile form. It fires their imagination and is a fundamental means of personal expression.
While it is essentially a practical subject, art should provide opportunities for reflection and, with increasing sensitivity, pupils should acquire the ability to make informed, critical responses of their own work and that of others.
There is great pleasure to be derived from Art and Design and, through deeper understanding; pupils can gain access to cultural richness and diversity. The appreciation and enjoyment of the visual arts enriches all our lives.
We believe that the learning of Art provides a valuable educational, as well as social and cultural experiences for children of all ages. Pupils develop life skills and have the chance to extend their knowledge of a practitioner’s works.
We collaborate with a local company called Glasgowbury to enhance the pupils’ artistic experiences. Glasgowbury send artists into our school to give the children experiences such as pottery making and clay modelling and animation.
We invite local artists into our school to share their knowledge and experience of art and design and to run workshops for our pupils.
We are also lucky to be part of a strong community where volunteers come in to share their talents.
Our pupils love to avail of the After-Schools arts and craft classes and entering competitions. We have been able to celebrate many successes over the years as a result of the talent and hard work of our pupils and teachers.
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Drama
Dramatic activity is already a natural part of most children’s lives before they start school in the form of make-believe play. We aim to utilise this innate activity at school through using structured play and drama to encourage pupils to learn actively and interactively throughout their time at St. Columba’s and across the curriculum.
Children love to move and to interact with others. In drama we ask them to do exactly this. In doing so they are developing such skills as critical thinking, problem-solving, decision making, self-awareness, creativity, enquiry, communication, empathy, self-confidence, cooperation, leadership and negotiation.
Most importantly, drama activities are fun – making learning both enjoyable and memorable.
Drama is ideal for cross-curricular learning and is a valuable tool for use in many subject areas. In particular, drama develops literacy skills – supporting speaking and listening, extending vocabulary and encouraging pupils to understand and express different points of view. Dramatic activity motivates children to write for a range of purposes.
Teachers can take a more open-ended approach, concentrating on the process of learning at least as much as – if not more than – the product.
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