Specialist
Subjects

Visual Arts

Visual Arts lessons are taught by a specialist teacher in our wonderful art room. In Art, students develop their skills while exploring a range of art disciplines such as paint, clay, construction, modelling, drawing, printing and textiles. They learn about the elements of art (colour, line, shape, texture, space and form) and the different art genres (eg portraits, landscapes, still life). Students respond to contemporary and historical artworks and create art inspired by artists from around the world, including First Nations People. Art provides a valuable opportunity for students to express themselves creatively, to explore new techniques and materials and to learn about the world through art.

Performing Arts

There are countless benefits of participation in Performing Arts for children. These benefits include building confidence and self-esteem, creativity, improving academic achievement, focus, memory, language development, as well as simply being fun!

At Malvern Valley, Performing Arts specialist lessons encompass drama, dance and music. Students work collaboratively to plan and perform regularly to their peers. They explore elements of drama, dance and music – the ‘ingredients’ we need to include to make our performances more successful, engaging and entertaining for our audience. In drama, areas of focus include character development, voice, movement, role-plays and scripted plays. Dance includes storytelling, cultural dances, popular dances and student choreography. In music, students learn to play a variety of instruments ranging from basic percussion to ukulele and use technology to create music.

Health and Physical Education

Malvern Valley’s Health and Physical Education program works on building students’ fundamental motor skills and providing them with a safe space to work cooperatively with their peers. The HPE program gives students access to a variety of sports including Australian Rules, Cricket, Netball, Soccer, Basketball, Hockey, Lacrosse and many more.

The program also offers a number of extra curricular activities, such as swimming and water safety lessons, Perceptual Motor Program (PMP) for Preps and Interschool Sport for our senior students.

Greek (LOTE)

We are proud to offer Greek as a specialist subject at Malvern Valley. Students from Prep to Grade 6 undertake an hour a week of Greek. Students explore the rich history and culture of Greece as well as the spoken and written Greek language. They learn about Greek symbols, traditions and celebrations such as flying kites for Clean Monday, dyeing eggs and baking delicious cookies.

An important aspect of learning any language is developing an appreciation and pride for our own and others’ heritage. Students are encouraged to learn, compare and share about their own cultural backgrounds and make connections between Greek, English and their own language/culture as often as they can. Harmony Day is always a wonderful celebration of the many cultures that make up Malvern Valley.

Library

All children are involved in the library program, which covers both literature, and research skills. Children are encouraged to borrow material. When borrowing these materials, children have a responsibility for the care of them and for returning them on time.

We regularly use the Phoenix Park library so we encourage all children to be registered at the library by their parents. The teachers take the children over the library each week and they are able to borrow using their card.

We also have a library which the children use with their class and it is open two days a week at lunch. Students are welcome to visit during these times to browse and borrow. Borrowing is generally for a fortnight except over the holiday period.