CULTURAL
LIFE AT ST JOHN’S COLLEGE
There are numerous opportunities for your child to develop their artistic talents at St John's College. Artistic culture encompasses Performance, Dance, Visual Art, Media Arts and Music (including a range of musical ensembles). Compiled below is a brief overview of the cultural life at St John's College to raise awareness of these opportunities.
PERFORMANCE
Drama
Each year, students are given the opportunity to perform in a College production. The larger productions are audition based and performed offsite. Production size varies and tends to be on a rotating cycle, adjusted by a number of factors, including current scope of talent. In 2013, students performed in the stage production of Love Gone Wilde. In 2014, students performed in a Theatre Restaurant where the entertainment is similar to a variety show. In 2015, the drama production was the Australian play, Stories in the Dark and in 2016, a full-scale musical, The Pyjama Game, was performed at the Caloundra Events Centre. In 2017, a large, predominately young cast performed a Gothic tale inspired by Children of the Black Skirt. 2018 saw four musicals combined into one spectacular event with Remember Tomorrow. In 2019, we presented a Shakespearean extravaganza as our piazza area was transformed into the magical forest of A Midsummer Night's Dream and In 2022 students sunk their teeth into a production of Dracula.
Performances created as part of the Drama Curriculum are also viewed by specific year groups. As the drama students' progress and confidence grows, the public performances possibilities increase. Rehearsals occur in class time with lunchtime and afternoon rehearsals are available if required. Each year, performances are entered in the Sunshine Coast Schools' Drama Festival.
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Theatresports is a form of comic improvisation played as a team. Each year, St. John's College has a themed Theatresports night where students from Years 10, 11 and 12 compete. Students and parents (and families) from all year levels are invited to this popular event. Outstanding teams compete in the Youth Theatresports Competition in Brisbane. This is a lunchtime commitment and afternoon rehearsal if required.
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The Arts Committee is open to all year levels. They choose themes for events advertise and create new opportunities around the College. It is an active committee providing the College with an exciting Arts focus. Drama students and members of the Arts Committee also perform at lunchtime in Arts week as well as Street Theatre for the Art Exhibition. This is a lunchtime commitment.
MUSIC
St John’s College offers an exciting and inclusive music program covering classroom, instrumental and vocal music. With a highly experienced and professional teaching staff, students gain proficiency on a wide variety of musical instruments. All students at the College are encouraged to be involved.
Music students at St John’s are members of a thriving co-curricular program that include the following ensembles where students have the opportunity to strengthen their musical abilities whilst making new friends and social networks:
-SJC Stage Band
-SJC Concert Band
-SJC Vocal Ensemble
-Chapel Band
-String Orchestra
-String Quartet
-Sax Quartet
-Flute Quartet
-Rock Band
-Guitar Ensemble
Our musicians perform regularly throughout the school year at Local Eisteddfods, competitions, school events and rituals. Events like ‘Music on the Piazza’ , College masses, House Battle of the bands and Club Bohemia represent the rich music culture at the college. Each year many students sit for AMEB examinations on their chosen instruments others pursue musical studies for enjoyment and personal achievement.
For further information please download the SJC Music Handbook.
Concerts both at school and in the wider community
- Local Eisteddfods
- Queensland Catholic Music Festival held at Villanova College
- Combined Secondary Schools Band Workshop held at Siena College
- 'Giving Back’ Concerts at aged care facilities, religious festivals and liturgies
- Small ensemble performances at Year Level Assemblies
- Full ensemble performances at Whole School Assemblies
- 'Music on the Piazza’ for the Arts Committee
- 'Club Bohemia’ – The colleges major annual music evening
- Summer and Winter Recitals
Awards Presentation
Individual or group performers, the Big Band, Orchestra and Ensembles are also given the chance to perform at the College's Awards Presentation in Term 4.
DANCE
Dance is fast becoming a much-loved subject of students at the college. Through dance, students represent, question and celebrate human experience, using the body as the instrument and movement as the medium for personal, social, emotional, spiritual and physical communication. Like all art forms, dance has the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and encouraging students to reach their creative and expressive potential. Dance enables students to develop a movement vocabulary with which to explore and refine imaginative ways of moving individually and collaboratively. Students choreograph, rehearse, perform and respond as they engage with dance practice and practitioners in their own and others’ cultures and communities. Students use the elements of dance to explore choreography and performance and to practise choreographic, technical and expressive skills.
We are proud to offer multiple opportunities to engage with the dance curriculum, across all year levels. The danceroom has become a haven for students wanting to expand their creativity, dance and make social connections. Dance is a subject that not only seeks to engage but inspire, and the College pride’s itself on the opportunities that students are exposed to in the area of Dance with entries in our local Sunshine Coast Dance Eisteddfods, TFT Schools Dance Championships and The Australian Dance Pinnacle Challenge with many dance groups and soloists having notable success. We have showcase the talent of our students each year with our Dance Extravaganza, which sees over 350 students take to the stage to perform in a variety of dance genres from Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Contemporary, Lyrical, Musical Theatre & Hip hop. It is one of the highlights of the school’s calendar. Dance performances take place at assemblies, liturgies, The SJC House Dance Cup and whole school community events such as our Arts evening. Our dance program at SJC continues to evolve and we look forward to what the future holds for all students who love to dance.
VISUAL ARTS
The Art Exhibition, in which all student work is displayed, occurs each year in Arts Week. Outstanding work from Year 11 and 12 students is selected to be entered into the Creative Generations Exhibition held at the Sunshine Coast University Art Gallery.
There is the opportunity for students to design, develop and be a part of the creation of props, backdrop, program and publicity for College Productions.
Mural Group allows for students of all year levels to create murals for the College as a need arises.
Publication of student art work is prominent in the College magazine, newsletter, murals, Artwork of the Week, Award's Night Program, Year Level Booklets and Student Gallery located in the student entrance.
2024 Digital Art Galleries
MEDIA ARTS
Media Arts is a dynamic and evolving subject that encourages students to participate creatively in the media. As active, creative participants, students learn how to understand media and media artworks and thereby avoid becoming passive consumers of the media. Some areas of study in Media Arts at St John’s College are photography, film, print media, digital design, website design, animation, advertising, screenplay development and audio engineering.
The first area of Media Arts that students are introduced to is photography. In Year 9, students gain an understanding of the purpose of photography in the media and how to develop their own style as a photographer. Also, our Media Arts department utilises cameras that take students from beyond the selfie into using photography as a form of self-expression. Areas of skill development in photography include: composition, lighting, colour, shape, monochrome photography and visual literacy.
Students of Media Arts develop both artistic abilities and technological skills. They learn to integrate technology with more traditional forms of creative expression. In Year 10, students are introduced to the Adobe suites: Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Audition. The skills developed while using this technology allows students to expand their creativity as they manipulate sound and images and form a strong understanding of film making processes. Over the years, a number of the films created in Media Arts have been awarded with a highly commended in various categories in the Stuffitt film festival. In 2019 the overall winner of the Junior Live Film category was the film Free to Air, which was developed during the Year 10 Short Film unit.
Recently, St John’s College has introduced the subject Media Arts in Practice at the senior level. In this subject, students study animation, documentary making, website design and poster design. Students are encouraged to connect with the wider community in the development of their artworks in Media Arts in Practice as they develop a knowledge of how the media reflects and moulds values and beliefs.
© Brisbane Catholic Education, St John's College (2023)