Visual Arts
Millen Primary has a vibrant and exciting Visual Art program. We actively take on opportunities to create and share our art making within and outside of the school. Students learn that the arts can entertain, inform, and challenge them. Their knowledge of themselves, their communities, world cultures and history are developed through weekly art classes.
When creating art, students are supported to practice creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. Students are taught specific art skills and encouraged to practice and develop their personal excellence. Responding to art encourages students to communicate their own feelings, thoughts and ideas and respect that others may have different opinions.
Students at Millen work across numerous art mediums including two and three dimensions techniques, painting, printmaking, textiles, digital art and ceramics. Rumour has it we were the first primary school to provide our senior classes with access to a pottery wheel in 2018! Education within the arts is not only fun but, importantly, it contributes greatly towards helping students become active and confident individuals that are able to express themselves and work together to find solutions to problems.
Art projects Millen students have undertaken include:
- Banners in the Terrace Competition 2018 (part of WALA – local government conference), where Millen represented the Town of Victoria Park.
- NAIDOC art exhibited at Millen as well as at the Victoria Park Library.
- Aboriginal art plates painted with Noelene Brockman.
- Year 1 students submitted designs for Mr Ben Wyatt MLA to choose for his 2018 Christmas card.
- Classes across the school created seed pods for the opening of the Perth International Arts Festival , Boorna Waanginy. These were part of the display in Kings Park (Feb 2019).
- Created Jelly Fish sculptures for Bloom exhibition at Fremantle markets 2019
- Created lanterns with visiting art for Town of Vic Park Street Party 2019
Art Club
Art Club is held every Wednesday lunch time in the art room. It is open to students from Years 4-6 and is a very popular and busy time!
The Art Club spends lots of time working on drawing. The students undertake their own mini projects, exploring art materials and helping create things for our school. The students also really enjoy doing jobs in the art room like sharpening pencils, filling paint pots and washing brushes.
Move, Say, Sing, Play – Making Music at Millen
At Millen, the children in years 1 to 6 participate in specialist music classes. They learn about the elements of music – beat, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempo etc – using the Orff Shulwerk approach, integrating other styles and activities as required.
The Orff Schulwerk, or simply the Orff Approach, is a developmental approach used in music education. It combines singing, movement, playing simple instruments and speech rhymes into lessons that are similar to a child’s world of play. It was developed by the German composer Carl Orff (1895–1982) and colleague Gunild Keetman during the 1920s.
We use a variety of tuned and untuned percussion instruments and ukuleles to explore music concepts, and use our new understandings to create our own music.
Extra Curricular Music Activities
At Millen we offer extra opportunities for children to extend their music skills.
The Millen Choir is open to students in years 4 to 6. We practise during the year for one main performance and offer other smaller opportunities to perform – ANZAC Day, and the End of Year Assembly for example.
In 2019, 32 choir students took part in the One Big Voice massed choir performance at the RAC Arena with 3,500 other primary students. It was quite amazing! We look forward to what we will do in the future.
The Instrumental Music Service in Schools offers tuition for selected students in years 5 and continuing into year 6. The instruments offered are guitar, clarinet and brass (trumpet or trombone).
There is also an opportunity for children to attend small group keyboard lessons with the company, PMI (Primary Music Institute). Whilst the school provides the facilities the program is run independently at a separate cost to families.