Arts at Cedar
At Cedar, we value creativity and see a strong arts programme as essential to student development and a balanced school experience. With a variety of opportunities for students to explore music, visual arts and performing arts, we hope to unlock the creative spirit in each Cedar student, while fostering strong communication skills, vehicles for self-expression, and the confidence needed to be risk takers.
Music: All students from EPYP 1 to MYP 5 have Music classes as part of their regular course of study. Students in the IB Diploma Programme can opt to take IBDP Music to satisfy their Group 6 requirement. Students in both Primary and Secondary have numerous opportunities to pursue their musical interests, from Steel Pan groups and Fungi bands, to school choirs and vocal workshops, in After School Clubs or in the secondary Elective programme. The Island Inquirers Programme, Cedar’s gifted and talented programme managed by the Solution Studio, allows students with exceptional aptitude for music to pursue their interests with independent study projects supervised by Cedar’s Music Department. The annual Talent Show, Season’s Greetings, and Steel Panorama, where Cedar’s steel pan groups, and those from around the Territory come to perform at Cedar, provide performance opportunities for all students right on Cedar’s campus. Our steel pan groups regularly showcase their talents to the wider world, performing at ‘Christmas in the City’, and recently performing at the Tortola Pier Park to celebrate the inaugural visit of a new cruise ship, and Cedar’s Fungi band is now a regular highlight at the annual Fungi Festival in Road Town.
Visual Arts: All students from Pre-K to Grade 10 take Visual Arts classes as part of their regular course of study. Students in the IB Diploma Programme can opt to take IBDP Visual Arts to satisfy their Group 6 requirement. The After School Clubs programme provides opportunity for further experience with the Visual Arts, particularly for primary students. Secondary students can further pursue their interests in Visual Arts by taking Mixed Media Arts as part of the Elective programme. An annual Art Exhibition is held in the School’s Atrium near the end of each academic year to showcase student work from all grades, EPYP 1 to DP 2. The annual Senior Art Exhibit is a special event showing off the work of our DP 2 artists, and is held in a public venue in Road Town each year so that students can present their work to the general public.
Drama: The Performing Arts are undergoing an exciting growth phase at Cedar. Having long been integrated into core subject areas, such as spoken word units and dramatic re-enactments in secondary English courses, and in skits and assembly performances in the primary school, Cedar is taking steps to bring Theatre to the forefront of its arts programme. This year, Cedar students have enjoyed Drama as a core subject in the IB Middle Years Programme, as well as an elective and after school club option, leading to the school’s first full-scale production, The Wind in the Willows. Cedar will build on this success with the following exciting actions:
- Dance will join Theatre as an Elective offering in the Performing Arts.
- Drama Club will be revived for primary students as part of the After School Clubs programme.
- Cedar will offer continue to offer Drama as a course within the core curriculum to MYP students, paving the way for the introduction of IBDP Drama as a Group 6 option for IB Diploma Students in coming years.
In addition, it should be noted that Film Studies already has a strong presence at Cedar. Film Studies is a popular offering as an Elective course, and students in the IB Diploma Programme have the option of taking IBDP Film as a Group 6 course.
