Specialist Areas

The pupils at Gilles Street Primary School study a range of specialist areas.

Spanish

Gilles Street Primary School recognises that understanding other cultures through learning an additional language enables cultural connections with global communities. The learning of a language develops student capacity in the General Capabilities of Intercultural Understandings and Communication and complements the learning in the other Capabilities as well as linking across other Australian Curriculum Learning Areas. Spanish is our language of choice and is provided to mainstream students from Reception to Year 5 for 50 minutes per week and 100 minutes each week for students in Year 6 and 7.

Why Spanish?

• It is the third most spoken language in the world - about 330 million people speak Spanish as their first language; another 100 million speak Spanish as their second language.
• It is the second world language of international communication and the fourth language in the Internet community. 
• It is the official language in 21 countries. 
• It is relatively easy to learn
• It is one of the supported languages of the Australian Curriculum
  

Media Studies

Students in the Intensive English Language Program are provided with 50 minutes each week of Media Studies. Students work with our English as an Additional Language Support teacher, Helen Grant.

Students learn about using and producing a diverse range of printed and electronic mass media texts. Student activities include making 'zines' and constructing photographic and film-making design briefs. Our IELP and EAL/D students investigate how meaning is made in media through use of visual, gesture, audio, linguistic, spatial and multimodal elements.

Performing Arts

Gilles Street Primary School has a reputation for an excellent performing arts program. We value the arts as an important means of communicating with each other in ways that build bridges of cultural understanding. The school participates enthusiastically in arts festivals such as the DreamBIG Children's Festival, the Festival of Arts, Young Film Makers and Festival of Music. All children in the school study Performing Arts (Music and Drama) as a Specialist subject. They have the opportunity to express themselves in a wide variety of media, become involved in interesting local projects and work with artists in residence.

Each year, all children from years R-6 participate in the annual production, performed in the Royalty Theatre on Angas Street.

We work closely and creatively with the 'Windmill Performing Arts Company' building student expertise in the Performing Arts area. We also make the most of our close proximity to theatres and utilise performances and cultural events in our learning programs both as incursions and excursions.

The school has earned a reputation for giving voice to students though the medium of film with titles such as Sudan, Afghani Cooking Show and All About Me, available for purchase and popular as teaching resources for other schools.