CAPA

Creative and Performing Arts- Starting the Year Strong!

Welcome to CAPA 2026 — a vibrant space where creativity flourishes, individuality is celebrated, and students are encouraged to express themselves with confidence. We warmly congratulate our 2025 Year 12 Drama, Music 1, Music 2, Extension and Visual Arts HSC students on their exceptional achievements and nominations for state showcases. A special acknowledgement goes to Jasper Yorke, whose 2025 Visual Arts Body of Work was selected for multiple Art Express exhibitions and venues. Jasper’s artwork is currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW until the 26th of April. Read more about Jasper’s artwork later in this article. 

There are no changes to the CAPA staff this year, and I am delighted to again be working alongside Mr Michael Tabrett, Mr Antony Mutch, Miss Pearl Hendy, Mr Nathan Taplin, Ms Chang, Ms Low, Ms Tillstrand, Ms Helen Sinclair (our SASS music assistant), and our dedicated ensemble directors. We also extend a very warm welcome to our new Year 7 students. We hope they enjoy their journey through Creative and Performing Arts at our school as they develop new skills and uncover talents, they may not yet realise they possess.

We are pleased to welcome Year 8 into Visual Arts following their Year 7 experience in Music and Drama. Delivering these subjects intensively within a single year allows students to engage more deeply and frequently, creating a richer and more immersive learning experience. Year 7 students will study four periods of Music per cycle (fortnight) and three periods of Drama, while Year 8 students will complete four periods of Visual Arts per cycle.

For students eager to further explore Drama, Music, or Visual Arts, a range of co-curricular opportunities is available, and participation is open to all students regardless of subject enrolment. These include various music ensembles running on different days before school and at lunchtime, Art Club on Tuesdays from 3:15–4:30pm in E2 (starts Term 2), and the Junior Drama Ensemble on Tuesdays from 3:15–4:30pm in J4 (starts Term 2). Ensemble details can be found later in this article, and students can speak to drama and visual arts staff regarding Junior Drama Ensemble and Art Club.  Participants in these activities will have the opportunity to showcase their talents at Drama Night, the Evening of Music, and the Art Exhibition in Term 3.

We are also excited to see the return of the CAPA Promotional Team. This initiative provides students with valuable leadership opportunities in a creative context. Congratulations to our co-captains: Jagrit R and Siddhant R (Drama Captains), Fergus W and Jeremy L (Music Co-captains), and Ayaz K and Aditya B (Visual Arts Co-captains). The captains are supported by a CAPA Crew and the CAPA staff. Student should see Ms Tillstrand in the CAPA staffroom if they wish to sign up. We look forward to seeing the inspiring projects they will lead.

With the school year now in full swing, the drama, music, and art rooms are already buzzing with energy and creativity.

AROUND THE ARTROOMS – BE INSPIRED!

In the Visual Arts department students create artwork based on themes. These are:

• Year 8 V.Arts – ‘Nature Meets Machine’ or ‘Colour and Imagination’
• Year 9 V.Arts– ‘Portraits’
• Year 9 PDM –    ‘Portraits’
• Year 9 V.Design – ‘Character Design’
• Year 10 V.Arts – ‘Fantasy’
• Year 10 PDM – ‘Surrealism’
• Year 10 V.Design – ‘Inspired Building’
• Year 11 V.Arts – ‘The Expressive Human Form’. 
• Year 12 V.Arts are advancing with their Bodies of Work (BOW’s).

Year 9 Visual Arts- Portraits in Progress 

This term, Year 9 students have been developing their foundational drawing skills through the study of portraiture. Focusing on proportion, tone, shading techniques, and attention to detail, students selected a celebrity of their choice and translated observational reference images into carefully constructed drawings.Throughout the process, students practised measuring facial proportions, building form through tonal layering, and refining their ability to capture likeness and expression. These progress works demonstrate their growing confidence in applying fundamental drawing techniques and their understanding of how light and shadow create depth and realism. Ms Chang

Year 10 Photographic & Digital Media- Cyanotype Prints

The new Year 10 class has had an exciting start to the year and have taken advantage of the heat and sunshine, making cyanotype contact prints of their best photographic work from last year. This process involves mixing light-sensitive chemicals on paper or cloth surfaces. Students then place a negative of one of their own photos on transparent plastic over the primed paper and allow it to develop in direct sunlight. After a quick water and hydrogen peroxide wash, they are left with striking, monochromatic prints. This old practice has helped the class recognise the more involved, physical methods that precede many of us. It has also demonstrated creative, alternative ways to breathe new life into old photos of theirs, and in some cases elevate ones they may have discarded in the past. Ms Lowe.Top:  Atharv D, Solomon H, Zane Q, Kingsley WMiddle: Divyesh N, Riian Z, Enoch I Bottom: Darnell S, Lynus L, Joshua J

Beyond the Artroom!

On Thursday 12th February Year 12 Visual Arts, accompanied by Mrs. Whalley and Ms Le Clerc attended an Unpacking Unseen Images educator led workshop at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). The workshop at the MCA gave students valuable insights into contemporary art practices and how to analyze and interpret contemporary artworks in preparation for Section I of the HSC paper. 

Students also visited ARTEXPRESS at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. This annual exhibition features a selection of outstanding HSC Visual Arts body of works from across the state (9,000 body of works in 2025) and gave students the opportunity to see high-quality examples of resolved artworks.

By the time you read this, our Year 11 Visual Arts students will have enjoyed a half-day excursion to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, while Stage 5 Visual Design students will have participated in an architect-led workshop at the Sydney Opera House and explored exhibitions at both the State Library of NSW and the Art Gallery of NSW. We’ll share more highlights and reflections from these experiences in the next newsletter.

Past HSC Visual Arts Showcase- Where are they now? 

Jasper Y- Visual Arts class of 2025

Ms Chang and I had the delightful opportunity to attend the opening of ARTEXPRESS at the Art Gallery of NSW. The exhibition was officially opened by Murat Dizdar, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education, who praised the creativity of 2025 HSC Visual Arts students and acknowledged the efforts of their teachers. He highlighted the exhibition's role in showcasing young artists who were selected from over 9,000 students who completed the 2025 HSC Visual Arts course. Jasper was also one of four ARTEXPRESS young artists selected to speak at a tour for the Governor-General, Sam Mostyn.

Jasper’s body of work ‘We have too much’ is inspired by his grandparents and the objects they collected over their lives. Drawn to these hidden treasures — carved coconut shells, bronze samurai figures, bones, tools, and old photographs, Jasper reflects on how such possessions feel both precious and burdensome to their owners. Through carved lines and complex compositions, the work expresses how objects and stories accumulate over time, revealing an unseen inner world. of their lives and experiences. The work is further enriched by an audio recording of his grandparents’ sharing stories about their collection of meaningful objects. Jasper’s work can be viewed at the Art Gallery of NSW until 26th April, and then will travel to Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, followed by Hawkesbury Regional Gallery. Jasper’s work will then be immortalised in the ARTEXPRESS Virtual Gallery. https://artsunit.nsw.edu.au/exhibition-item/artexpress/2025/we-have-too-much

Jasper’s BOW comprised of five lino cuts and an audio recording. 

Jasper is about to commence a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Sydney University.

Year 7 Drama- Improvisation and Mime 

Year 7 are jumping straight into the deep end of Drama with learning about miming and improvisation! Learning mime techniques helps our students with better understanding how to control their physical actions and visually convey ideas while improvisation is a key skill for thinking quickly on your feet. These core skills in Drama also help every student in developing their confidence, creativity, and ingenuity. Many of our boys have found such techniques of great use when delivering a speech in class presentations, giving news updates at assemblies, and advocating for themselves and their peers during practical activities. Here we see 7N also joining with tableau work, where they have to hold a pose and create a visually engaging scene with just their bodies. Better understanding space and physicality can be hugely beneficial to students, as they gain a better understanding of what others perceive rather than only holding their own individual point-of-view. 

Ms Low

Music- I Block Rocks!

In the Music department students are exploring music through performance, composition and listening within the following themes:

• Year 7 MUSIC  – ‘Radical Rhythms’ 
• Year 9 MUSIC –    ‘Medieval Music’
• Year 10 MUSIC – ‘Australian Music’
• Year 11 MUSIC 1 – ‘Methods of Notating Music’. 
• Year 11 MUSIC 2 – ‘Music 1600 – 1900'
• Year 12 MUSIC 1 – ‘Core Performance refinement’
• Year 12 MUSIC 2 - ‘Core Composition Completion’
• Year 12 MUSIC EXTENSION - ‘Recital program development'

CAPA Events!

Term 3 is the highlight of the CAPA year, where students showcase their achievements.

In Drama, Music, and the Visual Arts. Events include Drama Night, an Evening of Music

with a special appearance by the Year 7 choir (which includes every Year 7 student),

the annual Art Exhibition and the Community Concert. We look forward to seeing you in

the audience.

The Music Ensembles and Music classes regularly perform at assemblies and other school celebrations throughout the year.

Music Ensemble Program in 2026

Welcome to all musicians participating in our co-curricular music program at Epping Boys High School. We are very much hoping that you are ready for another busy and productive year. 

We have had a wonderful response from our new Year 7 students attending ensembles and we look forward to them participating in our dynamic music program throughout their high school years.

All our ensembles are now up and running. If your son still wishes to join an ensemble, please see below the rehearsal schedule and encourage your son to attend. 

Students may store their instrument on the shelves in the I block walkway during the day and are expected to collect it at the end of the day to take home. All instruments need to be clearly labelled with the student’s name.

Individual tuition is something that we consider essential for the improvement of the player and their contribution to their ensembles. All students are strongly encouraged to be having individual or group lessons outside of ensemble rehearsals.

Students have the opportunity to trial the different ensembles for 4 weeks before committing to the ensembles. Fees for the Music Program are compulsory and will appear on the student’s Statement of Account in the middle of Term 1. The annual fees are as follows:

Year 7 – 11 – One Ensemble - $400Year 

7 – 11 – Two or more Ensembles - $775

Year 12 – One Ensemble - $305

Year 7 – 11 – One Ensemble - $585

If your son has previously been a part of an ensemble and will not continue in 2026, please email the Music Program to have his name removed from the roll. For further enquiries, contact the music staff in the CAPA staffroom or via the music email address ebhsmusic1@gmail.com.

Mr Tabrett 

Pirates of Penzance takes anchor

The Hall is Alive with the Sound of Musical.

In Term 2 Week 2 EBHS will host The Pirates of Penzance: The Slave of Duty. While preparation on this huge project began last year, momentum has been building with activities throughout the week. The orchestra meets for a rehearsal with lead cast members on a Monday; Tuesday is a chance for the chorus to develop their singing and stage craft with Art Club creating props and scenery.

In addition to weeknights and home practice, weekend rehearsals have been scheduled for this term. Sundays are not a day of rest, but of much activity. Orchestral sectionals rehearse in I Block; acting skills are developed in J Block, while the hall stage provides the venue for choreography creation and practice. 

Stay tuned for the ticket release and we'll see you aboard the good ship EBHS Musical 2026.

Mr Mutch 

 

Louise Whalley 

Head Teacher CAPA