​Group 6: The Arts encompasses Film, Music, Theatre, Dance and Visual Arts. These artistic pursuits are a significant and important part of the school’s curriculum just as they are an influential part of everyday life. The arts influence decisions and choices made every day about such things as our clothing and appearance, our natural and built environment, music, television programmes and movies. The arts entertain, record events, promote ideas, provoke responses and stimulate discussion. They provide opportunities for us to create, reflect, challenge, ritualise, critique and celebrate. They also play important roles in expressing and sharing the vitality of cultures and communities, in constructing personal and cultural identities and in transmitting values and ideas.

There are some very good reasons to study the arts. They offer ways of thinking, doing and learning which extend a person’s academic, personal and social capability. Employers worldwide value people who can be critical, analytical and think in ways which are new, they call this innovative and creative thinking. Employers seek people who can work and think independently, who can research, develop, analyse, make change and communicate ideas. In a world of technological, economic, political and social change, these are essential skills.

Through the study of Group 6: The Arts subjects, students can develop and enhance a range of other internationally recognised skills, such as good written and oral communication skills, the capacity to apply and adapt knowledge to new situations, co-operation and teamwork, decision-making and problem-solving skills, the ability to question accepted wisdom and be open to new ideas and to think and reason logically.

One of the best things about learning Film, Music, Theatre, Dance, Visual Arts or Literature and Performance is that these subjects exalt the human spirit. They have the ability to improve our quality of life by bringing pleasure and joy to men, women, and children in every society and every culture. They engage our imaginations and help us to assert our uniqueness as individuals. 

It is expected that students take a Group 6 to match the IB and WIS philosophy of ensuring curriculum breadth across the six subject groups. Therefore, students will need to provide the Post-16 team with a strong rationale linked to university entrance or a future career path as to why they might use Group 6 for an elective block for a second subject. For example, choosing an elective might be appropriate for a student who wishes to study medicine and would benefit from studying two Higher Level sciences (chemistry and biology) rather than one science and one art.

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Students who wish to take two Higher Level Sciences must provide strong evidence for this and may be asked to attend an interview with the IB coordinator or Director of Learning for Post-16.