Deftly, the young artists swooped and swirled the sand beneath their fingers, animating it into imaginative pictures while, in front of them, musicians rang out a musical backdrop with handbells.
Coming from different schools and of different ages, around 350 young artists opened the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) with a concert on June 30 at the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.
The concert was special for another reason: It featured a handbell performance by 13-to 18-year-old students with special needs from Grace Orchard School, collaborating with mainstream students from Guangyang Primary School and CHIJ St Joseph’s Convent.
The sand artists were upper secondary students from Zhonghua Secondary.
This is the second time that students with special needs are performing in the SYF, which ended yesterday (8 July).
In its 52nd year, the event is organised by the Ministry of Education.
Mrs Valarie Wilson, director of its arts education branch, said the purpose of the event is to go beyond honing the artistic skills of students to build an inclusive platform for students from different backgrounds to interact and realise their potential.
In Grace Orchard School’s hand chimes co-curricular activity (CCA), more than half of the students have autism spectrum disorder.
Said their teacher, Ms Norazizah Mohamad: “Today, there is a lot of focus on (studies). But learning about the arts is important as it gives children the freedom to express themselves without being judged.”
She added that her students were thrilled to be given the opportunity to interact with teens from other schools.
Being given a chance to be part of the SYF allowed Grace Orchard students to practise the hard and soft skills they learnt in school, said Ms Michelle Wang, the school’s head of department for CCA.
“The arts are definitely one platform that can gel students from both mainstream and special education schools,” she said. “This performance showed the public what students with special needs can do.”
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Source: The Straits Times, 9 July 2018