Visual And Performing Arts
At BSM, the arts are a vital and rewarding part of every student’s school day. Access to and engagement in the Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) is a central component of your child’s education here.
Through experiences in Drama, Music and Visual Arts, that opens the students to new ideas and new challenges, we aim to develop the students personally, socially, emotionally and intellectually, and instill the habits of mind that last a lifetime – confidence, perseverance, the ability to analyse and solve problems, personal adaptability, spontaneity, the ability to cooperate, verbal and non-verbal skills, imagination and creativity. As if this is not enough it is also fun and rewarding.
The recent commitment to building the amazing Creative Arts Centre is strong evidence that BSM believes access to and engagement in Visual and Performing Arts is a central component of your child’s education. Through artistic exploration, innovative thinking and performance-based tasks, we help each child acquire the essential skills of effective communication, confidence and creativity.
From Nursery upwards, we give your child many opportunities to perform through lessons, assemblies, exhibitions and special performance days. In this way we support the process of building self-confidence and communication skills.
From Primary School upwards, all of our students experience Art and Music. In Senior School, we introduce Drama as part of the core Creative Arts. High value is placed on these programmes and we are committed to providing access for all students to the arts throughout their time at BSM. We are very proud of our students’ skills and abilities and ensure we have regular displays, performances and exhibitions of their work.
The Creative Arts Centre
Our recently opened, modern and airy Creative Arts Centre was built to offer students a wider sense of the subjects. With its glass exterior together with a large airy atrium and non-standard angles it sits as a foundation for creativity.
From the spectacular FOBISIA (Federation of British International Schools in Asia) Music Festival with over 250 participants on stage and an audience packed to the rafters, to the Year 13 IB Theatre Solo performances performed by 4 talented practitioners to a select audience of their peers, Bayanihan has proved itself to be the ideal platform for our community to nurture and hone their artistic capabilities.
From the views of the mountains to spark imagination for art lessons to dark painted backdrops in the drama department the building really facilitates the core of these subjects. Individual music training rooms and an additional dance studio allow children to develop even further.
Artists, musicians, writers, and actors are not born skilled. Huge numbers of creative professionals can trace the igniting of their creativity back to experiences at school...
Five Reasons to Study Creative Subjects
- The arts develop emotional intelligence and make students self-starters who set their own agenda, have to make independent decisions, be self-critical, be brave in exposing their creation, and accept criticism.
- The arts are stretching and require long hours of hard work, dedication and great attention to detail. Putting on a play, exhibition or concert takes strong organisational skills.
- Arts students are highly sought-after by employers. Top talent management agency, The Curve Group specialising in financial and business services, concurs: “Employees with an arts degree have developed more quickly in their roles from the start. They have discipline, confidence and can accept criticism.”
- Arts ‘reach the parts other subjects can’t reach’ – mind, body and soul. The arts can express the inexpressible and make sense of things that otherwise do not seem to. This can be very fulfilling and helps us function as human beings – which can only be good for society as a whole.
- Arts ‘reach the students other subjects can’t reach’ – particularly beneficial for two groups: those who struggle with traditional subjects may find art, drama or music the place they blossom and those who are high achieving may find the arts can bring them out of themselves and be a release.
Reasons taken from an article by Paul Steer, Head of Policy, along with subject specialists at the UK exam board OCR.