Living Faith has enhanced its offerings in the Arts in recent years. Perhaps most notably in the past 18 months, we have:

• expanded our music program to incorporate dance, drama and media arts, and renamed the subject Performing Arts;
• introduced a new specialist subject across all year levels called Art and Design, which incorporates science, design and technologies and visual arts;
• launched an extra-curricular dance program which, incidentally, has been overwhelmingly popular in its first term of operation;
• redesigned the layout of the former Music Room to reflect a versatile Performing Arts space; and
• unveiled a bespoke Design Studio, which is a double-sized classroom featuring spaces affectionately called The Workshop and The Gallery.

The value of The Arts can be overlooked when held against disciplines deemed to be more academic, such as English and Maths. However, an extraordinary number of neuroscience and cognitive development studies reveals that the Arts is essential to a child’s development.

Arts education is connected with improved focus/attention, compassion, positive social behaviours, civic engagement, increased self-esteem, decreased anxiety, reduced risk of depression and academic achievement.

Explore for yourself the benefits of the Arts in education through these articles and clips, that conveniently unpack the research in simple language.

• New Studies Link the Arts to Crucial Cognitive Skills
• What Happens in Your Brain When You Make Art
• Why Music?
• Does Learning Art, Dance and Music Boost Young Brains?
• Music and the Baby Brain
• Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Sidebar: I was chatting to a group of senior primary boys last week, not at all about the Arts. One of them signalled for me to examine his random and self-directed, yet wonderfully sophisticated, doodling. He proudly boasted, ‘Hey Miss Mueller, the Art and Design lessons are paying off!’

What is your child’s experience with Art and Design or Performing Arts classes this year?

- Jane Mueller, Principal