The Claver Creative Team at St Peter Claver College connects the learning areas of Dance, Drama, Fashion, Film and Television, IT, Media, Music and Visual Art through a learning hub which links students with their creative interests in the wider community.
Students involved, have the opportunity to participate in a variety of enriching Arts events and performances, such as the Claver Creative Musical. Through these experiences they are empowered as partners and leaders in a learning community.
The strong creative and collaborative Arts opportunities provided at the College enable students to build creative skills and creative thinking. This provides natural preparation and progression for further studies in Creative Industries courses at universities.
Dance
St Peter Claver College has one of the most successful secondary school Dance programs in Queensland. This success is measured not only by results at Eisteddfods across South East Queensland over the past six years but also through the number of participants (over 200) and the successful development of a range of attributes through the Dance Program. The Claver Creative Dance Program offers students the opportunity to develop self-confidence, physical fitness, organisational skills, goal setting, perseverance, responsibility and leadership for their lifelong learning journeys.
Claver Creative Dance is a friendly, inclusive yet highly self-disciplined environment that commences in Year 7 when students may select Dance as an elective subject. In Years 8 and 9, students may select semester units in Dance. In Years 9 and 10, they also have the option of choosing Health and Physical Education Dance Development. From these, many students audition for the Beyond the Classroom Dance teams such as the Claver Creative Dance Troupe and the Claver Creative Junior Elite Dancers both of whom rehearse after school on one afternoon each week. Students experience a range of dance genres including Hip Hop, Musical Theatre, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, Ballet and Bollywood.
Students in Years 11 and 12 wanting to be involved in Dance usually enrol in Dance in Practice and many also enrol in the QCAA Authority subject Dance. Dance in Practice classes are before and after school once a week and from this squad are selected members of the Claver Creative Senior Elite Dance team. The Dance teams perform in a number of Eisteddfods, Musicals, Theatre, Displays and Concerts, particularly the Annual Claver Creative Dance Concert which features all 200+ dancers in front of sell-out crowds.
Dancers have the opportunity to work with a number of professional choreographers and develop their dancing to their potential.
The Claver Creative Dance Program offers students an exciting sense of belonging and achievement.
Drama
Claver Creative provides a number of extra-curriculur opportunities in the field of Drama. Our Drama Club, the Claver Players, is a free, fun program designed to enhance participating students’ abilities in the performing arts. The Claver Players participate in the South-East Queensland Youth Theatresports Competition every year as part of their improvisation training program – and without a doubt, it’s the funniest, most entertaining sport you’ll ever see! Our College is a proud participant in the Queensland Youth Shakespeare Competition, Shakefest. For several years running Claver Drama students have performed at the State finals across a broad range of categories, and on some of those occasions have finished in the top three. We run collaborations with our media department, affording our students the opportunity to work as screen actors, and there are also a plethora of other options for participation in Drama.
Additionally, each year we produce a mainstage production. This production is open to students from around the College across all year levels, and is a wonderful chance to show the public just what our students can do. Previous productions have included Box the Pony, The Yellow Boat, Shout! The Legend of the Wild One, Children of the Black Skirt, The Wizard of Oz, Mother Courage and Her Children, Back to the 80’s, The Book of Everything, and Macbeth.
Media
Media is an engaging curriculum area at St Peter Claver College, but it also provides a number of exciting extra-curricular opportunities.
The Claver Film Club operates once a week, and students who attend participate in workshops, develop and produce their own original projects, and showcase their own original work. Students have entered work into a number of festivals in the local region, and have also had work submitted for consideration into the Australian Teachers of Media Awards.
The College runs an annual filmmaking competition, the Claver Creative 72 Hour Film Festival. In one frantic weekend, teams of students are challenged to create a film to meet a set of conditions they discover just before the competition begins.
There are a plethora of other opportunities for students to be involved in Media – from acting as an event photographer, through to helping to create film packets and packages for various interested parties across the College. We constantly bring to students’ attention competitions and festivals and invite and encourage their entry, making available time and resources to support these initiatives. Media is a thrilling and exciting area in the life of Claver.
Music
St Peter Claver College offers opportunities for students in both curricular and extra-curricular Music. A full Instrumental Music Program with tuition is available. Students are able to participate in College Ensembles and will have the opportunity to engage in live performances throughout the year. If you would like to enrol your child in the Instrumental Music Program please complete this form.
Why Study Music
The benefits derived from studying Music are extensive and well documented. The Sydney Morning Herald Reports that, “Two decades of frenzied research has now found that Music Education grows, hones and permanently improves neural networks like no other activity. Children who undertake formal, ongoing musical education have significantly higher levels of cognitive capacity, specifically in their language acquisition and numerical problem solving skills. They also continue in education for longer, reverse the cognitive issues related to disadvantage and earn and contribute more on average across their lifetime.”
Music can be the foundations on which our students’ successes, previously unimagined, can be achieved. Dr Richard Letts, Executive Director of the Music Council of Australia, states that, “If a person is engaged in making music, the brain will grow to support the activity as it would for any activity - but in the case of music it appears other abilities also increase. The consequence is that children who study music have an accelerated learning in other academic subjects.”
In Australian schools, Music students consistently show significantly higher grades than the general student population. Music is one of the few activities that activates, stimulates and uses the entire brain. It is well known that Music assists in a child’s development and should be an essential component of a student’s education. Many students find Music calming and it can inspire their outlook on the total school experience.
Music has the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and encouraging students to reach their creative and expressive potential. Skills and techniques developed through participation in music learning allow students to manipulate, express and share sound as listeners, composers and performers. Music learning has a significant impact on the cognitive, affective, motor, social and personal competencies of students.
As independent learners, students integrate listening, performing and composing activities. These activities, developed sequentially, enhance their capacity to perceive and understand music. As students progress through studying Music, they learn to value and appreciate the power of music to transform the heart, soul, mind and spirit of the individual. In this way, students develop an aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment of music.
The Washington Post reports that one of the largest scientific studies into Music's effect on the brain has found something striking: Musical training doesn't just affect your musical ability - it provides tremendous benefits to children's emotional and behavioural maturation. “What we found was the more a child trained on an instrument, it accelerated cortical organization in attention skill, anxiety management and emotional control.” James Hudziak, M.D.
The study found increased thickness in parts of the brain responsible for executive functioning, which includes working memory, attentional control and organizational skills. In short, music actually helps students become more well-rounded. Hudziak's research is an important addition to the field because it shows that music helps us become better people, too. One thing is clear: Learning music is one of the best things a person can do.
Visual Arts
St Peter Claver College has a Visual Arts Block, consisting of three Art studios as well as specialist, storage and outdoor areas. The facility has long windows on one external wall revealing an exciting gallery where student work is exhibited. Visual Art is a dynamic component of Claver Creative where links are made across the curriculum but particularly across the Arts.
In Years 7 and 8, all students get to sample painting, drawing, sculpting and mixed media artworks for a semester.
In Year 9, students have an opportunity to use their creative intelligence to make original and exploratory works of art using painting and ceramics for a semester.
Year 10 students study the unit, Art as Impact, exploring two and three-dimensional media. In the second component, students develop media and sculptural skills to create a hybrid sculpture.
In Years 11 and 12, students select from the QCAA Authority subject Visual Art or the Authority-Registered subject Visual Arts in Practice.
Visual Art students contribute to numerous Art exhibitions at College events and participate in local and State wide competitions.