Designed and built with care, filled with creative elements

The Gateway School Of Mumbai – Keshavlal V. Bodani Education Foundation | Celebrating 10 years

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Arts and Grandstand

  /  Arts and Grandstand

Grandstand

Grandstand is a dynamic space where a diverse group of learners come together to socialise, collaborate, and share experiences. It fosters active participation through hands-on, meaningful, and relevant learning experiences, giving learners the opportunity to express their voice and make choices.

By taking initiative and making decisions, learners develop a stronger sense of motivation, interest, and accountability. Grandstand serves as a platform for learners to work cohesively within the Gateway community, promoting unity and building confidence.

Through this space, learners apply their knowledge, skills, and attitudes to solve real-world challenges and navigate situations collaboratively, both within the group and the larger community.

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Arts

The arts are integral to the holistic development of every learner. Our programme encompasses visual arts, drama, and music, ensuring that learners engage in all three disciplines every week.

The arts programme at Gateway aims to develop artistically literate individuals who use the arts as a medium for communication, creative self-expression, learning about culture and history, emotional well-being, and community engagement. Rooted in evidence-based practices, it draws from the National Common Core Arts Standards, the NIOS, and the Cambridge Assessment International Education Curriculum. To deepen learning, the arts are seamlessly integrated with core disciplines like Language, Humanities, Sciences, and Maths through our Multidisciplinary Learning Units (MLUs). Each unit of inquiry is assessed, and learners are given opportunities to present their creative work in formal and informal settings throughout the year, making their learning visible.

The programme also fosters meaningful collaborations with local communities and community projects through partnerships with organisations and artisans. These initiatives allow learners to engage in socially relevant art projects, learn traditional and contemporary art forms, and contribute creatively to their communities, thereby building empathy and social awareness.

The programme provides learners with invaluable exposure by inviting external visiting teaching artists and creative professionals to work with learners. These experts share their skills, unique styles, and inspiring journeys, broadening learners’ horizons beyond the classroom. Field trips to art galleries and culturally significant sites further enrich their background knowledge and foster a deeper understanding of the arts in context.

To nurture learners’ artistic growth and professional aspirations, the programme emphasises professional practices in the arts. For visual arts, learners are encouraged to exhibit their work annually in a professional gallery setup within the school. For performing arts, learners present their work in a state-of-the-art black box theatre and participate in touring productions at other schools. These experiences equip learners with real-world exposure and valuable insights into professional artistic practices.

Communication

Creative personal realisation

Culture, history, & connectors

Emotional wellbeing

Community engagement

Visual Arts

The visual arts programme is designed to nurture learners’ ability to communicate uniquely, generate experiences, and translate ideas, feelings, and imaginations into visible and tangible outcomes. By engaging in drawing, painting, and inventive practices, learners are empowered to comprehend, respond to, and make sense of their experiences of the world.

The curriculum emphasises the development of fine motor skills while celebrating the individuality and creativity of each learner’s work. It fosters self-confidence and self-esteem by encouraging risk-taking, spontaneity, and originality. Through this approach, the programme inspires learners to embrace their uniqueness and explore vast possibilities in the field of visual arts, with exposure to the works of global contemporary artists broadening their perspectives.

In the lower school, the curriculum focuses on building foundational skills by allowing learners to develop an awareness of their bodies, refine motor skills, and explore various foundational mediums. Learners work with open-ended materials, sensory elements, and upcycled objects, alongside traditional mediums, offering them an introduction to what constitutes making art. This hands-on, exploratory approach helps them understand the boundless possibilities within the visual arts.

As they transition to middle school, learners are introduced to the works of influential artists and diverse art styles. They delve into concrete mediums and materials, learn studio practices, and understand the dos and don’ts of working with various tools. At this stage, they also develop essential soft skills such as speaking about, presenting, and sharing their artwork. Additionally, learners explore the principles of art and design, applying them to their creative processes.

By the time they reach high school, learners advance to mastering specific skills in fine arts, choosing to specialise in areas such as painting-related media, fibre arts, ceramics, thread art, screen printing, and more. This progression equips them with both technical expertise and an appreciation for artistic expression, preparing them for deeper artistic exploration and potential professional opportunities in the visual arts.

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Performing Arts

Drama: In the lower school, the drama programme emphasises learning through play and multi-sensory storytelling, incorporating open-ended sensory materials such as clay, newspapers, and fabrics to inspire play and narrative creation. This approach fosters creative thinking and action, enhancing critical thinking, problem-solving, and risk-taking skills. These skills are closely linked to the development of body awareness and motor skills, which serve as the essential foundation for participation in performing arts.
In the middle school, the focus shifts to building foundational performance skills. Learners are introduced to various theatre concepts, including stage directions, script analysis, ensemble building, physical theatre, puppetry, and the works of artists and their techniques or art forms. They engage in immersive activities such as educational field trips and interactive workshops, and are exposed to live performances, including street plays and puppet shows. The programme also integrates drama with MLUs, exploring different subjects through street plays, role-play strategies, and improvisation, fostering creative expression and a nuanced understanding of the MLU content.
The high school drama programme balances the process and product of theatre-making, while fostering life skills in collaboration with the Speech and Language Therapy team. The first term, focused on preparation, emphasises building real-world performance skills such as clear communication, spatial and physical awareness, and collaboration. This foundation supports learners in the second term when they create and perform in productions and collaborate with external artists and organisations.

Music: At the lower school level, the music programme strongly emphasises the integration of music and movement as a means to support holistic development. Through engaging activities, learners develop foundational motor skills, body coordination, spatial awareness; enhance their auditory processing abilities and listening skills; and nurture a love for music and creative expression.
In the middle school, the focus shifts to expanding learners’ knowledge of world music. They are introduced to fundamental musical concepts such as rhythm, melody, harmony, and dynamics, while exploring various musical genres and styles. They also begin learning to play an instrument, developing technical skills, discipline, and a deeper understanding of musical expression. These acquired skills are then applied in a theatrical performance, allowing learners to collaborate and present their work as young musicians.
At the high school level, the programme emphasises both collaborative performance and the broader applications of music. In the first term, learners contribute as vocalists or instrumentalists and integrate live group music into theatrical plays, refining their skills in ensemble coordination, stage presence, and musical interpretation. The second term focuses on exploring music for well-being and self-expression. Additionally, learners develop an appreciation for music as an art form by analysing compositions, exploring diverse genres, and understanding their cultural and historical significance, fostering both artistic and personal growth.