Intermediate Guide: Specialist Subjects

Min started Specialist subjects when she began intermediate. The school offers a wide range of Specialist subjects, each running once a week. In Year 7, students rotate through them so they can try a bit of everything. After experiencing all of the subjects, students choose three for Year 8 based on their own preferences and what they discovered along the way, and study those in more depth.

The Specialist subjects are grouped into Art and Technology. Art is divided into Visual Art, Digital Art, Music, Dance and Drama. Technology covers Soft Materials, Mechatronics, Food Technology, Product Design, Control Technology and Science. Through these classes, the children get a chance to try out a variety of creative and practical fields — both the theory and the hands-on side — and slowly find their way toward what interests them.

In Term 1, Min took Digital Art and Science. Pieces from Digital Art come home as printouts now and then, and we can also see them through the HERO app. Digital Art was the class Min had been looking forward to most — she's always loved making images on her iPad — and after actually trying it out, she has already pencilled it in as one of her Year 8 choices. She has also tentatively chosen Soft Materials (sewing) for next year, though we'll see how that holds up after she has tried more of the other subjects.

Min's Artworks from Digital Art class

My girls love making things with their hands, so I'm quietly pleased that the school doesn't ask them to choose specialist subjects in their first year. If it did, Min would never have ended up in Science, Mechatronics or Drama on her own. What I'm hoping for, over the three terms still to come, is that she stumbles into something she didn't expect to enjoy — that some quiet, unfamiliar subject turns out to be the small surprise of the year.