CAPA TAKES CENTRE STAGE!

Term 3 has once again been an exceptionally busy and rewarding period for the Creative and Performing Arts Faculty, with students and staff involved in a vibrant program of performances, exhibitions and celebrations. From the beginning of the term, CAPA students embraced numerous opportunities to showcase their creativity and talents, making Term 3 truly deserving of the title “CAPAFEST”!

A highlight of the term was the CAPA HSC Showcase and Art Exhibition, which celebrated the achievements of our HSC Visual Arts and Music students alongside an extensive exhibition of student artworks from Years 8–11. The exhibition was exceptionally well received by families, staff and members of the wider community, with many visitors commenting on the outstanding quality and presentation of the work. The evening also featured performances by our HSC Music students and was officially opened by acclaimed Australian artist George Gittoes, whose contribution added a significant and memorable dimension to the event.

Week 6 saw the highly successful Evening of Music, with the co-curricular ensembles, some Year 12 Music students and a Year 7 mass choir performing to a full house. The breadth of musical styles and the high standard of performance reflected the commitment of our students, Music staff and external Musical Directors. The diversity and scale of the Music program continue to be a distinctive feature of Epping Boys High School.

CAPA students also contributed performances to a range of important school events throughout the term, including the Community Concert, Prefects Induction Assembly, Honour Book Assembly and Winter Sports Assembly, providing further opportunities for our talented musicians to perform and contribute to the broader life of the school.

Adding to the already busy schedule, our Year 12 Visual Arts students submitted their Bodies of Work to NESA in Week 7, followed by the HSC Music 1, Music 2 and Music Extension practical examinations in Week 8. These important milestones marked the culmination of months of dedication, creativity and sustained practice by our Year 12 students.

The CAPA HSC Showcase, Art Exhibition and HSC Music performances were a resounding success, despite our guest artist, George Gittoes, being unable to attend in person due to illness. George and his partner, Hellen Rose, generously joined the evening via video conference, with George delivering an inspiring and engaging presentation about his artistic practice, career and experiences. This was particularly meaningful for our Year 12 Visual Arts students, who study George Gittoes as a case study and draw upon his practice in their HSC written responses. Students had the unique opportunity to ask George questions directly, creating a valuable connection between their classroom learning and the practising artist.

Earlier in the day, we were also fortunate to connect with George via FaceTime and take him on a virtual tour of the Year 11 exhibition, allowing him to view and discuss the students’ artworks. George spent considerable time engaging with the works, asking about their ideas, processes and intentions. He was highly impressed by the strength of the students’ work, noting that several works were of a standard worthy of Highly Commended recognition. George ultimately selected a Year 11 artwork for the Emerging Artist Award, which he announced during the video conference.

The evening was extremely well attended, with the hall filled with families, friends, staff, students and members of the wider community. The Year 12 Bodies of Work attracted significant interest, while the Years 7–11 exhibition highlighted the breadth of Visual Arts, Visual Design and Photographic and Digital Media opportunities available at Epping Boys High School.

The event was a wonderful celebration of CAPA achievement and demonstrated the value of connecting our students with practising artists. A special thank you to George and Hellen for taking the time to share their evening with our school community, particularly under difficult circumstances. Their generosity and willingness to engage with our students made the occasion especially memorable.

The CAPA community also supported the Yellow House Charity, founded by George Gittoes and Hellen Rose, through a fundraising BBQ earlier in the term to support their humanitarian and community work in Afghanistan. It was a wonderful opportunity for our school community to strengthen our connection with George and Hellen and present George with a donation to support the organisation’s work during the video conference.

Recipients of the CAPA Visual Arts Awards were:

The Emerging Artist Award – Cooper R (Year 11) presented by George Gittoes and sponsored by the Art Scene West Ryde.
Highly Commended Awards – Fred W and Daniel G (Year 12) presented by Trenton Brown, Mayor of Ryde
The Sustained Practice in Visual Arts Award – Aditya B (Year 12) presented by Jordan Lane, MP Ryde
The Outstanding Body of Work Award – Ken L (Year 12) presented by Jordan Lane, MP Ryde
The Old Boys Choice Award – Elvin S (Year 12) presented by Ryde Councillor Lyndal Howison
The Ladies Auxiliary Prize and Award – Khanh H (Year 12) presented by Ryde Councillor Lyndal Howison

Year 10 Visual Arts clay gargoyles

Year 10 Visual Arts students have been getting creative with clay, designing and constructing their own gargoyle sculptures using a range of hand-building techniques. They developed their skills in coil building, pinch pots and slab construction, combining these methods to create imaginative creatures featuring wings, horns, claws, tails and intricate textures. A strong emphasis was placed on careful construction, secure joining and attention to detail, with each gargoyle designed to sit proudly on its own square plinth. The results are a wonderfully diverse collection of quirky, characterful and highly imaginative sculptures!

Gargoyles from left to right top to bottom: Harsh S, Rodger X, Aiden L, Aman C, Lachlan Y, Aariv S, Ethan N, Daniel O.

Mrs Whalley

Year 10 Visual Design Inspired Buildings

Year 10 Visual Design students have designed and constructed clean cut architectural models that responded to specific social needs, including galleries, education centres, community spaces and places for recreation. Drawing inspiration from leading Modernist and Postmodernist architects including Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Le Corbusier, Buckminster Fuller, Charles Moore and Richard Meier, students explored innovative approaches to form, structure, space and function. Year 10 are now designing 3D printed abstract sculptures to go on their model.

Gargoyles from left to right top to bottom: Darnell S, Aarya V, Aiden L, Ahmad I, Matthew P, Yosep K, Oliver N, Aiden T, Daniel O.

Mrs Whalley

Year 10 Visual Arts landscape painting

Students explored how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists challenged traditional approaches to painting and applied these techniques to their own landscape artworks. Experimenting with expressive colour, visible brushstrokes, light, texture and simplified forms, students created vibrant landscape paintings inspired by artists such as Claude Monet. Through this process, students developed their skills in acrylic painting, colour mixing, composition and expressive mark-making.

Ms Tillstrand

Year 8 Steampunk Fish

Year 8VAR2 students have explored sculpture, texture and imaginative design through the creation of their own 3D Steampunk Fish. Using a range of clay construction techniques, students developed unique fish inspired by the mechanical world of steampunk, decorating their sculptures with underglazes, oxides and onglazes to create their quirky creations.

Mrs Whalley

Fish from left to right, top to bottom:

Luke K, Bruce C, Roy Z, Kevin L, Maxwell C, James L, Arnav P, Devyansh P, Xavier

Photographer of the Month

Once again we've had some amazing submissions for Photographer of the Month this past term! Many of our boys latched onto both themes of "Light" and "Animals" quite quickly and the range of submissions was truly impressive. This was especially the case with "Animals" in the month of August, with every submission being a unique animal. Although it was a tough call, in the end the prizes for each month went to goes to Nelson C in Year 7 and Zieg B in Year 11. Both students' submissions are exemplary depictions of the subject matter, with Nelson's photo of the Sydney Opera House during Vivid 2026 perfectly capturing light in a snapshot moment, while Zieg's macro photography skills highlight a keen eye for intricate detail and texture. Very wonderful job, boys! I'm excited to see what else our students submit for the remainder of the year.

-Ms Low

L to R: Nelson C (Y7) and Zieg B (Y11)

Year 8 Nature Meets Machine

This semester several Year 8 students have completed their Nature Meets Machine sculptures, inspired by Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing. These boys have gone to great lengths to add their own Steampunk twist to their sculptural works, having created them entirely from found materials ranging from drink bottles, to masking tape, tissue boxes, and light bulbs. The boys have also done a marvelous job using spray painting techniques and adding their own graffiti tags with acrylic paint markers to transform the texture and aesthetic of these everyday objects. The Year 8 students should be very proud of themselves for investing so much time and effort into these imaginative, hybrid machine creatures.

Top (L to R): Delrick H, Aiden L, Marcus Nelson J

Bottom (L to R): Liam R, Archie C-M, Paxton H

Year 10 Photomedia Landscapes and Surreal Photograms

The Year 10 Photographic & Digital Media class have continued to progress well into their foray with post-production software and techniques. This semester they completed their photomedia landscapes, having emulated the art style of Yang Yongliang, a contemporary Chinese artist who blends cities with traditional East Asian landscapes to reflect the dense, urban life that we have become very familiar with. The Year 10's works push this concept by transforming and warping ordinary Sydney cityscapes into more futuristic, in some cases dystopian, settings. They have also now switched gears to a more playful aesthetic by mimicking the works of Gilbert Garcin, a modern surrealist artist whose photogram collages reflected the absurdity of everyday life. The class have been enjoying themselves with this more humorous work, placing themselves and their classmates into ridiculous, impossible situations. Look forward to more surreal and outlandish work from the Year 10 students throughout the year!

Photomedia Landscapes:

Top (L to R): Lynus L, Solomon H, Riian Z

Bottom (L to R): Divyesh N, Darnell S, Zane Q

Surreal Photograms:

L to R: Lynus L, Enoch I, Solomon H

An Evening Of Music

An Evening of Music was held on Tuesday 25 August 2026. Our school has an excellent reputation for its music program and this year’s concert continued the strong tradition of showcasing the immense talent within our school. The audience was entertained by nearly 400 performers, including the long-standing tradition of the Year 7 Choir. There are twelve cocurricular ensembles available to students at the school. All ensembles presented pieces to entertain and delight the appreciative audience.

Our external ensemble conductors work very hard throughout the year to prepare our students to perform at this event and we thank Mike Kenny (Orchestra, Stage Band and Jazz Band), Lachlan Skinner (Senior and Intermediate Percussion Ensembles), Ulier Giles (Junior Percussion Ensemble) and Melissa Kenny (Senior Vocal Ensemble) for their dedication to our school’s music program. Each ensemble performed skilfully with a varied program of pieces.

To add to our external conductors, we are incredibly fortunate to have a team of music teachers who are dedicated to their curricular classes as well as directing co-curricular ensembles. Mr Michael Tabrett has taken on directing the Concert Band this year, in addition to the String Orchestra. Mr Antony Mutch brings the joy of guitar playing to both the Junior and Senior Guitar Ensembles and Miss Pearl Hendy continues to grow our Junior Vocal Ensemble to perform confidently.

We enjoyed stellar performances by Year 12 Music students Jeremy, Jaden and Nathan. The Year 7 Massed Choir performed the classic Backstreet Boys ballad, I Want It That Way, Shosholoza, a traditional African melody and Djapana by Yothu Yindi. This performance is always very popular with our audience as the Year 7 parents get to watch their sons perform on stage.

Our thanks go to all the people who made this huge event run smoothly: Stage Crew, Sound and Lighting Team, CAPA Crew led by Johanna Tillstrand, the Panorama Photography Team, Front of House helpers and the Year 7 team wrangling our lively boys before their performance. Thanks also to Louise Whalley, Esther Chang, Sam Calvert, Angus Hilliard and parents for serving the interval refreshments, EBHS Student Executive who acted as MCs and Prefects, who helped in many tasks behind the scenes. Special mention for Ms Helen Sinclair – Administration, all our ensemble directors and of course, our three amazingly talented and inspirational music teachers, Mr Michael Tabrett, Mr Antony Mutch and Miss Pearl Hendy.

As we come to the end of Term 3, we farewell our Year 12 students and wish them all the best for their HSC exams and future. We have watched these students develop into mature musicians and valuable members of our Music Ensemble Program. To end the term, the Year 12 Massed Choir performed enthusiastically at the Community Concert and at the Graduation Assembly.

Louise Whalley

Head Teacher CAPA

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