Arts and Culture
ARTS IN THE CURRICULUM
The Arts are powerful forms of personal and social expression. They link imagination, thinking and feeling. They provide essential learning for living and develop a wide range of both general and specific skills, which are significant in many aspects of life, including employment. They are important for recreation and leisure.
The Arts cross boundaries. They are a source of international communication and understanding. They express and shape national identity. Learning through the Arts enables students to appreciate and understand their own heritage and other cultures. It provides opportunities to examine a range of values and perceptions.
The Arts are important to the growth of self-knowledge and self-worth. They encourage students to investigate their own values and those of others, and to recognise the aesthetic and spiritual dimensions of their lives. They enable students, as individuals and as members of a group, to understand, express and communicate present and past experiences. (The New Zealand Curriculum Framework, 1993, page 15)
At HPSS, learners can experience a range of arts and cultural activities giving them the opportunity to develop talents, acquire new skills and link their interests to their learning. Through their learning programmes, learners will experience a range of options from the Performing Arts (including Dance, Drama and Music) and Visual Arts disciplines. Learners also have the opportunity to take music lessons through an itinerant music programme, or be involved in small and large-scale productions.
