To our Sacred Heart Community
ABODA Festival returns
After two years of being online, the 2022 South Australian School Band and Orchestra Festival (ABODA) was back at Westminster School. Our combined Drumline opened the festival on Wednesday morning, taking out equal Silver in the untuned percussion category. Congratulations also to our Concert Band who earned equal Gold in the Novice Band section for their performance on the Friday. With more than 3,000 students from 38 public and private schools entered in over 100 different ensembles from string, orchestra, percussion, drumline, concert band and jazz/stage bands, this is a fantastic effort by our students!
Congratulations to all of the students and Band Directors for their hard work in preparing for this event. A big thank you to the competing schools and the organisers of this amazing event.
Intercollegiate Round Performances
It was wonderful for some of our musicians to be involved in the 99th Intercollegiate Round last week. Singers Kaitlyn Rossi (Year 12) and Ava Musarra (Year 11) opened the Soccer, Basketball and Football singing the National Anthem, while the Drumline entertained Basketball and Football audiences during the warm-ups.
Lastly, our own resident DJ, Will Donaghey performed a set during half-time at the football to keep the crowd’s energy pumping for the grand finale of the Intercol.
A great show of Collegiate Spirit from these musicians. Well done to all involved!
Marist Songwriting Competition
In Term 1 students across both Marcellin and Champagnat campuses were invited to write a new song encompassing the 2022 Marist Theme, ‘Known and Loved – Dignity for All’.
Year 8 students, Alistair Larsen and his friend, Madeline Kinloch from Cabra College entered their original composition, ‘We Run Away’. Their song speaks about loyalty to each other, about sailing away to a new home and the worries they face. It tells us that we can escape worry and become happier as we find somewhere safe to build community. ‘We Run Away’ will be featured in our Marist Day celebrations on the final day of term.
Congratulations to Alistair Larsen and Madeline on their original song!
Music Achievements – AMEB Exams
Each year many music students study towards music performance and theory examination through the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB). Congratulations to the following students on their great results:
Jack Edwards – Drums Grade 6 (Rockschool) – Merit
Aaligha Collyer – Flute Grade 1 – A
Isabelle Stahlhut – Piano Preliminary Grade – B+
Kate Poland – Piano Grade 4 – B+
The Arts @ Champagnat
With Subject Selection being the topic of conversation around campus this week, it is timely to consider the purpose, relevance and life skills that Arts subjects can bring. Our students face a future career in which the nature of work will change significantly. Due to our ever-increasing reliance on automation and robotics, it’s important to understand the key skills employees in both the private and public sectors will need in the future. According to PwCAustralia, the top 5 skills needed for future employment include:
Creativity
Emotional intelligence
Complex problem solving
Judgement and decision making
Cognitive flexibility.
All of these skills are embedded throughout the Arts curriculum and offer our students a place to think broadly about global concepts and see the world through a different lens.
See what our Arts students think about what they are currently learning in our Snapshots of The Arts’ around Champagnat below:
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Hannah Durante – Year 7 Drama
“One thing that I have enjoyed learning was improvising. Improvising is when we have to think what we have to do on the spot and turn it into a scene. A class highlight was ‘Space Jump’. Another reason why I enjoy Drama is because I can express myself in ways I can’t in real life. It also helps me learn to know what anger really looks or feels like. This can help if you want to become an actor or if you want to express yourself in ways you never could before.”
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Kinjal Bansal & Eliza Barratt – Year 8 Dance
“We are learning about different Dance elements and how to incorporate them within our poses. We are learning to do different types of poses regarding the theme of ‘nature’. Dance is really fun because it provides us with challenges and the opportunity to connect with our peers and come up with our own dances.”
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Myles Barnett – Year 8 Music
“In Year 8 Music Performance we are currently looking at chords and scales to create a fanfare. We are also practising and building up for our performance. This is exciting because we get to learn a song and perform it in the upcoming ‘Battle of the Bands’. This helps with playing onstage and improvising parts if needed, and problem solving if something goes wrong.”
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Max Hansen – Year 9 Music
“We have been learning about major and minor scales and putting them to use. We have also been learning various chords and songs on instruments of our choice for practical work, and have had to perform as a class and solo to improve our performance. We were also given the opportunity to create an in-class ensemble to perform in ‘Battle of the Bands’, an opportunity that over half of the class has become involved with.”
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Lexi Guerra – Year 9 Creative Arts
“We are learning to work together as a class to produce and perform a play in front of another class. It is exciting to have the opportunity to experience other roles other than an actor, such as lighting director, music director or even making the set for the play. Some of the skills utilised within this subject are confidence, teamwork and organisation. It teaches you to work with other people from other areas of production so that it all comes together in the end.”
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Sage Artistadou & Fiona Jenkinson – Year 9 Visual Arts
“We are learning about the art movement, Impressionism. We have been taught how to create art by using small, long and curved strokes with paint and pastels. We are currently in the process of creating our own individual impressionism art works using images of objects or landscapes as inspiration. This is very exciting because it’s a different type of artwork that we have never done before and it teaches us to have patience and trust the process.”
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Josh Porter – Year 9 Media Arts
“We are currently learning different camera techniques, angles and all the necessary skills to create a film. This has included colour correction and using camera angles to convey emotion. Media Arts is exciting as I can learn what gives a movie its feel and emotion. Editing and camerawork is a very important skill to learn, even if you don’t plan on using them as a job or hobby in the future. Having this basic life skill could be helpful if someday your job does require you to make a video presentation.”
Senior Art Excursion to the SALA Festival
The Year 11 and 12 Visual Art and Design students visited multiple exhibitions in the city for the SALA Festival (South Australian Living Artists) this month. It was wonderful to see such a variety of artwork from so many different current artists. Students started their day at the Nexus Gallery space, viewing a performance artist who created artwork based around the circular marks made by the evaporation of tea. Next, they viewed work at the Jam Factory and were delighted to watch glass artists in action in the glassblowing hot shop! We then walked to the Samstag Museum of Art and saw some huge and immersive video installation works, which were very impressive.
After a short (although highly important) stop for lunch, we walked to the Art Gallery of South Australia and finished off the day with a tour of artwork in the SALA Festival and the permanent collection. This was such a great opportunity for students to view contemporary artworks that focussed on many important current issues and I thank all students and staff for their involvement.
