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Creative Arts
Welcome to The Creative Arts at Great Baddow High School, designed to showcase the incredible creative talents of our students. Art work worthy of the best galleries, drama performances that could grace the West End and musical performances that would thrill the most discerning audiences!
The Creative Arts at Great Baddow High School involves three of our curriculum subjects: Art and Design, Drama and Music.
Collectively, they are responsible for a huge range of extra-curricular opportunities as well as preparing concerts, exhibitions, and productions for our wider school community.
View the Creative Arts Extra-Curricular Club Timetable here.
Art and Design
Our art & design department put on exhibitions throughout the year to showcase the GCSE and A Level talent as well as providing competitions across the school for students to be involved with.
The annual Christmas Card competition takes place in November/December and the winner has their design printed and sent to the wider community of Great Baddow High School. Students also enjoy opportunities to see art in-person with regular visits to the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery, the Royal Academy, Saatchi Gallery in London and the Sainsbury Collection in Norwich.
Click here to view the Art and Design Curriculum
Drama
The drama department’s extra-curricular opportunities include an annual production for students of any Year group to be involved in. Recent performances have included We Will Rock You and Mary Poppins.
There are also opportunities to learn the behind-the-scenes running of productions for those students who prefer to manage the stage rather than perform.
Clubs run by Drama include Acting Elites (for Year 9 students) and Acting Juniors (for Years 7 and 8) as well as extra rehearsal time for GCSE and A-Level performances. Our Acting Elites perform each Spring in collaboration with the Drama Network Chelmsford, whereby students from the local secondary schools come together to showcase devised performances and celebrate their work together.
All students at Great Baddow High School can attend theatre visits to the West End and local theatres as well as participate in workshops hosted at our school. Our Acting students in years 12 and 13 run workshops for Year 10 and 11 each year, allowing the year groups to work collaboratively and for the GCSE pupils to get an insight into the BTEC course at KS5 level.
Click here to view the Drama Curriculum
Music
In music, students can attend any of the extra-curricular clubs that take place every week. The department offers four Choirs - Rock Choir, Chamber Choir, Top Secret Boys Choir and Musical Theatre Choir.
The music department offers regular workshop opportunities for Samba drumming (using our 40-piece Samba ensemble kit) and ukulele choir workshops.
Students can also sign-up to any of our music lessons, subject to availability, for a range of instruments (piano, guitar/ukulele, saxophone, clarinet, flute, trumpet, trombone, singing, violin, drums and composing).
The department hosts a minimum of two concerts a year including the Christmas Concert at Chelmsford Cathedral and a Summer Showcase. Additional performances have recently included an Evening of Piano , an Evening of Music from around the world by the Orchestra, and an Evening of Voice featuring the choirs and solo singers. Students also have the opportunity to enter the annual Music Competition and complete their graded examinations at school as we are a certified test centre.
The Creative Arts Channel
Our new Microsoft Stream platform is an area where any work from Art & Design, Music or Drama can be uploaded for the whole school community to see. Only students and staff have access to Microsoft Stream via the GBHS Portal and they can like their favourite videos and follow the channel. Whether it be work completed in class, highlights from concerts/productions/exhibitions, competition entries or extra-curricular clubs – this platform is for every student at Great Baddow High School to get involved with and show their talent and support their peers. Some of the content will be made public in the near future and we look forward to sharing the work of our students with you.
Developing Students for Life
The Creative Arts delivers a significant role in preparing our students for life:
- Emotional Intelligence: Students should set their own agenda, make independent decisions, be self-critical and accept feedback from others. They need to be brave to expose their work to others and often work in a team and demonstrate good communication.
- Developing Broader Skills: These subjects require long hours of hard work and dedication, therefore requiring attention to detail and organisational skills.
- Employability: Employers actively seek Arts students due to their discipline, confidence, acceptance of criticism and love for learning new technology. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, credits his success to hiring lots of musicians and artists.
- Personal Development: The Arts help develop mind, body and soul allowing students to express themselves in ways that might not be possible in other subjects.
- Academic Benefits: Those who struggle with traditional subjects, and may become defeatist, often find there is a subject within the Arts that they can do. High-achieving students who are very studious also benefit from the Arts as it provides a platform for release.
