Performing and Creative Arts Zone
Art, Drama, Music, Performing Arts, Media Studies, Physical Education and Design Technology
Through performing and creative arts we encourage students to develop a range of personal qualities such as originality, creativity, experimentation and independent learning.
We develop students’ self-esteem through active participation, enabling students to achieve their creative potential through the development of physical and social confidence in a safe and supportive environment.
Students can participate in a wide range of activities in order to enrich their learning experience. House competitions form an integral part of the zone’s enrichment programme and the zone offers a variety of opportunities for learners to demonstrate their talents.
In Drama and Music, students perform at academy events including Presentation Evening, the annual academy production and the talent show. Performers also take part in the National Shakespeare Festival, workshops at the Forest Arts Centre and visits to theatres including a West End show and cultural visits in London. Students experience professional live performances during the academic year and have the opportunity of taking peripatetic instrument lessons in woodwind, keyboard, strings, guitar, bass guitar and drums. There are currently pop and rock groups who rehearse together
after the teaching day. The academy also offers courses in Performing Arts and Media Studies. We have large teaching rooms for Drama and Music equipped with ICT facilities, four practice rooms, plus a 250 seat theatre equipped with stage lighting and sound.
Within Physical Education, students are given the opportunity to represent the academy at sports such as badminton, football, basketball, rounders, cricket, trampolining and swimming. We also compete in the Walsall Schools’ Athletics Competition.
We have excellent sports facilities including a sports hall with eight badminton courts, indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, astro-turf and eight all-weather tennis courts.
There are also opportunities for students to develop their personal and social skills by becoming a member of the Leadership Academy and a Sports Ambassador as well as completing additional qualifications including ‘Heartstart’ by the British Heart Foundation.
There are two large teaching rooms for Art and a specialist pottery room. Students at Key Stage 3 have the opportunity to work with an exciting range of two and three dimensional media including drawing, painting, clay, textiles, wirework, card sculpture and collage.
At Key Stage 4, students study Art and Design at GCSE and, at Key Stage 5, students choose their strongest area to study as a specialism at A Level or can work more broadly within Art and Design and study several specialist areas. Photography is a developing area and students have the opportunity to learn how to use digital cameras and equipment and manipulate their images using computer software. A broad range of art styles and artists, designers and craftspeople are introduced and students are encouraged to consider and value art and design in society.
Students can attend enrichment clubs offering opportunities to try out new media and work on projects such as producing scenery for the annual production.
Artists are invited in to the academy to work with students throughout the year, and students studying examination courses benefit from visits to museums and art galleries. Students’ artworkdisplayed around the academy and promoted through praise postcards and calendars.
Within Technology, there are two resistant materials workshops, a specialist graphics room, two ICT rooms to develop CAD (computer aided design) and CAM (computer aided manufacture), a specialist food technology room and a textiles room. Students gain experiences in a wide variety of Technology specialisms – graphics, textiles, resistant materials, food technology and electronics. Students benefit from using CAD (computer aided design) and CAM (computer aided manufacture) from KS3 onwards.
A facility is available for design students which includes the use of Apple Mac computers and industry standard design software such as Adobe Creative Suite. These high specification computers open up further areas of study not just for graphics students, giving them an industry standard skill ready for further education. Students are able to further their experiences in clubs at the end of the academy day, and gain assistance from older students who are completing work for their GCSE or A level courses.
