Girraween High School

Aspire - Respect - Unite

Telephone02 9636 7293

Emailgirraween-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Visual arts and photography

Girraween High School provides students with exciting as well as unique opportunities for developing making and appreciating art.

Visual arts is a mandatory subject in Years 7 to 8, after which students may choose to study elective visual arts in Years 9-10. The preliminary visual arts course in Year 11 and or photography and finally higher school certificate (HSC) visual arts in Year 12.

Students are taught technical skills in a broad range of two, three and four dimensional media including drawing, painting, printmaking, digital media, photography, ceramics, film making, animation and sculpture. With this practical knowledge they are then encouraged to develop this expertise to a high degree of refinement.

Art history and critical study goes hand in hand with the students understanding of their own artistic practice. They are exposed to all facets of visual arts, traditional methods and artists through to contemporary art. All this is a substantial part of the visual arts syllabus through from Stage 4 through to Stage 6.

Visual arts students participate in excursions to places like art gallery of NSW, museum of contemporary art, Penrith regional gallery, sculpture by the sea and a variety of other locations to engage with original works of art and stimulates the creation of expressive artworks.

Structured class activities which foster student confidence are followed by more self-directed learning when students can pursue their own interests in both art making and art history. All the visual arts courses develop students' visual literacy, creative problem solving, lateral thinking and personal expression as well as contemporary practice.

Girraween has the privilege of mentoring the growth of very creative and conceptually advanced visual arts students. These students annually achieve the highest standard in their higher school certificate results with their of which produce a level of art making that is far beyond their years. We have had many students achieve selection to the coveted selection of art express.

Music, Art, drama and dance (MADD) school exhibition

Each year the students of the visual arts classes submit works to be put on display for Girraween High Schools annual music, art, drama, dance performance evenings.  

Year 12

Development of the body of work may commence from the beginning of the HSC course. The body of work must be conceived and executed by the student under the supervision of the visual arts teacher.

Candidates will submit a body of work which should demonstrate the understanding of art making as a practice and represent the candidate's ideas and interests through the interpretation of subject matter and use of expressive forms.

Year 11

This course provides students with a broadly based experience and enables them to develop understanding in and about the visual arts.

Students learn about: 

  • The nature of practice in art making, art criticism, and art history through different investigations.
  • Agencies in the art world — artist, artwork, world, audience.
  • The frames and how students might develop their own informed points of view.
  • How they might develop meaning and interest in their work.
  • Building understanding over time through various investigations and through working in different forms.

Year 10

  • Students develop knowledge, understanding and skills to make artworks informed by their understanding of practice, the conceptual framework and the frames.
  • Students are also expected to develop knowledge, understanding and skills to critically and historically interpret art informed by their understanding of practice, the conceptual framework and the frames.

Year 9

  • Students are introduced to knowledge, understanding and skills to make artworks informed by their understanding of practice, the conceptual framework and the frames.
  • Students are introduced to knowledge, understanding and skills to critically and historically interpret art informed by their understanding of practice, the conceptual framework and the frames.

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