Creative Arts

CREATIVE

ARTS

This has been a fantastic year for musical performance in the Lower School. The Mini Concerts showcased our many very talented ‘Mini-Mozarts’, a number of whom have won prizes in international competitions this year. The range of instrumental performance has also been impressive with vocal, brass, woodwind, percussion and strings all represented. Weekly assembly performances have also become an important platform for students to hone their performance skills, which continued during online learning in video form.

“The school really features music and gets everyone to sing and play in the different groups.” Pinn Pinn (5C)

The Christmas concerts were highly successful where every student in the Lower School had the opportunity to take to the stage and perform. Interest in the Junior Orchestra has continued to increase after their highly professional performance and it now has almost 50 members rehearsing weekly. The choirs also remain extremely popular and the Junior Choir has been busy supporting the weekly Junior Singing Assembly, both live and with online recordings. They have also been involved in an exciting FOBISIA choral project with other schools around the world, as well as working on a collaboration with the Upper School Choir. The cast of the Lower School musical production, Alice in Wonderland, has been rehearsing in earnest.

“I thought the Christmas concert was a complete extravaganza. It was an incredible performance from every single child involved.” Pre Prep Parent

In Music classes, a focus on the High Performance Learning skill ‘creative thinking’, during Terms 2 and 3, has resulted in some extremely inventive musical compositions. students have composed their own short film scores using ‘mickey mousing’ and leitmotiv techniques. They have developed improvisations on Wagner’s Ride of The Valkyries, as well as having composed their own versions of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

It has certainly been a very exciting and creative year for Music in the Lower School! In a year of unprecedented change and challenge, Harrow Music Students have to continued excel in areas of musical performance. The year began with the House Music Competition with performers showcasing their creativity and collaboration. The Music Scholars enthralled their audience in their first live Chamber Concert of the year and the Christmas Concert featuring choirs, orchestras, steel bands, Jazz band and the Mamma Mia ensemble was just the tonic we all needed at the end of a long term.

The much anticipated Mamma Mia brought about a bit of a motto in the Music Department; ‘Take a chance’. With the cancellation of events and restrictions on performances, we had to seek alternative ways of sharing the love of music and performance. Students and teachers had to think outside of the box and take risks. As a result, Term 3 saw the release of a series of excellent pre-recorded concerts and films featuring rock bands, the Scholars Music concert, Jazz Band, the Advanced Percussion Group and last but not least, Mamma Mia, the abridged version of the Musical. What a journey!

I would like to acknowledge the success of our students in their ABRSM examinations and the achievements of our Music Scholars in numerous music competitions locally and internationally. We are very proud of you all.

To leave you with one final quote from Mamma Mia: “I have a dream…” that one day soon, we will be able to perform together again for live audiences and when the time comes, be prepared to dazzle.

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ARTS

“I enjoyed learning about cubism because our self-portraits were full of lots of different shapes and colours!” Ava (3T)

The students in Lower School have seen another exciting year of Art and Design filled with creativity and imagination. Art provides opportunities for our pupils to use a range of materials creatively whilst developing an understanding of colour, pattern, texture, shape, space and form. By first exploring ideas and meaning through the works of famous artists and developing their understanding of how art has shaped history, students gain the confidence and expertise to experiment, invent and create their own works of art.

“I liked learning how to make colours lighter.” Yoshi (1O)

This year, Lower School students have had the opportunity to interact with an increasing range of resources, tools and equipment to develop their skills in painting, drawing, sculpture, printing, textiles and collage.

“I loved doing the pastel work because I loved touching the colours and getting all messy whilst creating a Rousseau picture - even getting some on my face!” Annabelle (4L) In the Early Years Centre, Art allows students to explore and experiment, think freely, be creative and express themselves in a variety of ways. Art provides our very youngest learners with visual, tactile and sensory experiences by choosing their own materials and using them in an open-ended way. In Pre Prep, Art skills are taught explicitly and build on the creativity fostered through the Early Years curriculum.

“I liked creating 3D sketches because I learned a lot of new skills that I practise at home.” Hettie (5M)

We are so proud of our Lower School Artists who show iCreate and iGoForIt in every piece they do!

It has been a productive year for Design Technology in theLower School

We have introduced the use of 3D printers with a 3D printing competition, where students designed Christmas decorations. The winning designs have been printed and presented to the students. We are embedding the use of the 3D printer into future projects in the curriculum and planning to use them in a computer aided design after school activity, which will be launching next academic year.

Year 2 have practised their sewing skills by creating puppets of endangered animals. As well as seeing much impressive needlework, we were pleased to discover that many of the

endangered animals studied in previous years have now been taken off the endangered list.

Year 4 worked on their woodwork and precision skills through creating boxes. They used hacksaws, bench hooks and sandpaper, as well as computer design software to plan their boxes. They also alarmed their boxes with simple buzzer circuit systems, to stop unwanted visitors peeking inside!

At the time of writing, and in preparation for their transition to Prep School, the Year 5 students planned to use the Design Technology workshops in Harrow Bangkok’s CPA building for their final Design Technology project of the year. This will be a good opportunity for the students to be inspired by the fantastic tools and resources that will be available to them in their Design Technology learning in the future.

Thank you to students of Pre Prep for your hard work this year. We, as a staff body, have been impressed by your determination and creativity! And thank you to the parents for your support, collecting and donating recycled materials for us to use for our various projects.

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As the Upper School Design Technology department continued to grow this year, so has the number of students we have passing through the studio doors each morning, lunch and after school. They have all been eager to develop their creative and practical skills and enhance their love for the creative arts after the lockdown we had to endure.

One of our main foci this year was to encourage Prep and Shell students to embed vital computer aided design and prototyping skills into their repertoire of processes. During the periods of online learning, we were able to challenge the students to create virtual environments, using a wide variety of apps available on their devices. The skills developed here have allowed the students to think logically as well as solve design problems and more importantly, enhance their designing skills using relevant technology.

Another focus has been to embed resilience and reflection as a positive learning tool. We did this by setting

cardboard engineering challenges, including a marble run, a cardboard boat that could carry a load, and a chair to take the weight of a person. The students used design processes included researching, designing, manufacturing, testing and redesigning again, before videoing and presenting their solutions. The department was overwhelmed by the skill, creativity and complexity of the entries received.

Our IGCSE students have shown incredible passion and resilience by completing their projects with a full design portfolio to complement their 3D outcome. There have been a lot of late nights in the workshop with full support of the department staff to produce an outstanding array of work with a high level of quality and finish. We are so proud of all of the students for getting to this stage.

As we move forward, next year will see the department expand further with a new member of staff joining the team, as well as our first cohort of A Level students completing the Edexcel Product Design course.

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We began the year by awarding Art Scholarships to a dedicated band of Upper School artists. It is always a pleasure to see young artists flourish whilst making sometimes masterful pieces of work. But just what does it take to make a great piece of art? There is of course no universal formula, but having witnessed our best artists at work in the studios this past year, I can say with some certainty that it takes courage, resilience, inventiveness, independence, a willingness to make mistakes and oodles and oodles of time. At Harrow Bangkok, we are particularly blessed to find these characteristics in our students. In Yeong Yuh (B13) and Kiki (N13), we have two of the best artists Harrow Bangkok has ever had. We say fond farewells to an exceptionally talented year group of senior artists who have found new ground in their pursuit of Art & Design over the past two years.

Students brought as much creativity and energy as ever to this year’s House Art Competition. Inspired by the art of illuminated manuscripts, each House was tasked with creating an original design featuring one of the letters of our school, H.A.R.R.O.W. Whilst still a competition in every sense, we cherish the spirit of teamwork and creativity brought about by this competition. Ably led by our senior students, we are always thrilled to see so many take part. The House Art Competition holds a special place in the Creative & Performing Arts calendar, as does our Year 8 Rangoli Challenge Day, which brings characteristic colour and pattern to the walkways at Diwali.

This year, we took a deeper look at the transition between the Lower and Upper School. We were delighted to host a life drawing day for Year 3 students, who spent time sketching in our gallery before embarking on their own delightfully imaginative watercolours. We are continually impressed with the creative spirit to be found in the studios. We thank all our staff and students for another marvellous year.

With the pandemic being the global drama of the year, opportunities for our talented students to exhibit their talents have been limited. Now bolstered by the multi-talented Mr Nicholas Lewis and our design technician Khun Lookwa Saeng-Xuto, the department has created new avenues for our students to find outlets for their imagination and ideas. In Year 9, students were given the opportunity to learn about the skills required in set, costume, sound and puppet design while Year 7 and 8 students rehearsed mini public performances in the shape of horror film trailers and Greek Chorus storytelling. Despite lockdowns, our Year 11 students persevered with coursework demands, to pull together some challenging work around the themes of war, human trafficking and LGBTQ+ rights. Despite no live performances of Mamma Mia, the cast and crew valiantly filmed an abridged version of the musical and as I write, Prep school are also filming a show including dancing, singing, monologues and magic acts. Even Year 3 have got in on the act as they received two hours of drama as part of their topic exploration on Fair Trade. They were excellent in their attitude and in their use of some very testing techniques. A great advert for the innovation and inspiration that Lower School students could display in regular Drama lessons.

Next year, we hope that the department will be able to see audiences again. Until then we wish you all a safe and peaceful summer break.