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This page is based on the draft Year 8 content for The Arts, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.
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In Years 7 and 8, students deepen their artistic skills through practice and reflection, creating expressive works that explore mood, character, and personal identity. They engage with diverse art forms and art traditions from New Zealand, the Pacific, and around the world.
In this phase, arts teaching is structured around 3 strands that focus on key areas of learning. These include:
- Performing Arts: making and creating, observing and responding
- Music: elements of music, listening and responding, performing, including singing, playing instruments, and creating and composing
- Visual Arts: making and creating, observing and responding.
Performing Arts#
With your child, you could:
- talk to people you know about what makes them interested in performance, such as dance, drama, te ao haka, either as a performer or as an audience member
- read or listen to reviews of a performance you have seen and discuss whether you agree with the reviewer and why
- watch a recorded performance and discuss what you think the main message of the performance is (is there a central symbol or motif and how does that contribute to the overall message) and watch it again to see if you were correct and how the idea was developed
- discuss their thoughts and feelings about a performance they are part of developing, helping them think through a challenge and sharing in their enjoyment.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher helps students grow their creativity by exploring, practising, revising, and reflecting. They guide students to create more detailed performances that use symbolism and abstract ideas to express who they are.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- identify familiar symbols, signs, objects, or images, that represent something other than themselves
- experiment with movements, gestures, props, or costumes to represent feelings and ideas, for example, using wiri | trembling hands to represent shimmering light or water or mauri | life force
- explore ideas and characters in drama, for example, using role play to imagine characters’ thoughts on an issue or question
- think about the flow of their performances and how to transition smoothly between scenes or movement sequences
- use performance technologies, like lighting and sound, to help convey meaning
- think about how to tailor performances so the audience understands their meaning and feels engaged
- experiment with the features of different genres, and reflect on their effect on the audience
- practice whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, and reciprocity
- interpret symbols and abstract ideas in a performance
- make connections between their own and others’ performances, thinking about the ideas explored, how people collaborated, and the processes followed.
Music#
With your child, you could:
- sing songs with younger family members and teach them songs that are meaningful to your whānau
- explore singing in harmony, for example, singing rounds as you travel in the car, or singing a waiata at an event
- sing unaccompanied and sing accompanied by instruments, body percussion, or karaoke tracks, noticing how the accompaniment affects the singing
- watch a live or recorded orchestral performance and talk about the different instruments and how they affect the overall piece
- explore digital audio workstations (DAWs), such as GarageBand and make your own music
- listen to movie soundtracks and talk about the musical devices composers use to create effects and evoke responses.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher helps students grow their creativity by exploring, practising, revising, and reflecting. They guide students to create more detailed works that use symbolism and abstract ideas to express who they are.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- know that “harmony” refers to the number of independent parts in a piece of music, recognise how it impacts on mood, and add harmony to compositions
- identify the instruments used in a piece of music and discuss how they contribute to the melody, harmony, and overall sound
- sing in harmony in a range of musical traditions, focusing on phrasing, tuning, and the sensitive use of dynamics
- play instruments with others, listening carefully to the balance and blend of the music
- use digital instruments or backing tracks in performances, and digital software to compose, edit, and mix music
- explore how composers use musical elements to communicate with the listener
- explore social, cultural, and historical influences on music and how music can reflect social change, for example, its use in protest movements, the story of gospel music.
Visual Arts#
With your child, you could:
- visit a gallery, museum or public space or go online to find an artwork your child likes, and discuss whether it’s contemporary or historical, who made it, when, where and why it was made
- view a modern artwork, such as those by painter and sculptor Star Gossage, and talk about what you notice and the thoughts it sparks
- explore art-making practices linked to your cultural background or interests, such as taniko, raranga, whakairo, animation or character design, and think about how they can be used as a form of self-expression
- experience art as self-expression through creating an item to wear, such as a badge, T-shirt, or jewellery
- explore how artists like Clare Youngs, Blaine Fontana, and Charles and Janine Williams combine their main subject matter (focal point) with patterns and motifs that are meaningful to them.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher will focus on helping students improve their creativity through exploration, practice, revision, and reflection. They help students create more complex, layered works that include symbolism and abstract ideas and say something about who they are.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- use visual arts elements, principles, and conventions to create compositions that communicate aspects of their personal and cultural identity, for example, self-portraits, symbolic paintings, motifs and patterns
- use symbolic forms and motifs and culturally significant materials to express an idea, drawing on toi Māori and other cultural art conventions, and show respect for the protocols that guide their use
- use visual diaries or digital tools to develop and refine their ideas
- use imagination, observation, and lived experience, as well as established practice, to support and develop visual ideas, for example, looking at the work of portrait artists when drawing faces
- recognise the symbolic and cultural significance of te ao Māori, Pacific knowledge, and art from diverse cultures through the elements and tikanga used to make the work
- reflect on and interpret their own and others’ artwork, using the language of art and showing awareness and respect for the context in which the artwork was created.
