All Junior Primary and Primary classes at St Joseph’s Memorial School participate in a weekly class of music and expressive arts based activities.

Music activities are based on the musical principles of Kodály, Orff Schulwerk and Upbeat. 

The principal aims of the music and expressive arts programme are:

• Aesthetic response – enjoyment, communication and active understanding of music, dance, drama and creative movement.

• Aesthetic investigation – recognise and demonstrate the expressive components of music and dance styles, drama and creative movement characteristics.

• Skill development – aural discrimination, music reading and technical ability as needed to participate in musical and expressive activities; investigation and classification of information about music and expressive arts components.

• Social interaction – co-operation with others while participating in, and sharing, highly engaging musical and expressive experiences; building confidence and positive self-esteem.

On Thursdays during lunchtime at the Junior Primary Campus (Bridge Street),

the children have the opportunity to participate in arts activities as part of the ‘Something on Thursday’ project.  Most weeks there are different activities that follow an arts concept – for example: concerts, singing, dancing, painting, drawing, making instruments and viewing visual art & media productions.

Children in Years 5 to 7 can participate in choir, culminating with the annual performance in the Catholic Schools Music Festival in September.

All children at St Joseph’s Memorial School also have the opportunity to view, and participate in, visiting cultural artist performances at various times throughout the school year. 

The children at St. Joseph’s Memorial School are taught Japanese as their Language Other Than English (LOTE).

Preschool children learn basic greetings, numbers, colours, they sing Japanese songs and have interactive Japanese picture books read to them.

Primary school Japanese has the children learning the Japanese writing system, simple phrases and theme words through activities such as songs, games and roll plays.

Students learn about Japanese culture and celebrate various festivals, the Dolls Festival, Children’s Day, Setsubun and Tanabata. They learn about life in Japan, the lifestyle, pastimes and Japanese sports. At various times they participate in Japanese traditional pastimes such as origami, calligraphy and preparing Japanese food.

Older students look at contemporary Japanese culture such as manga and anime, as well as experiencing a trip to a Japanese restaurant.

They have an opportunity to interact with native speaking Japanese.  We have visiting Japanese students who work in with Japanese lessons as well as having hosted Japanese homestay students at the school.