Learning at SOTA

Artistic

Our arts programmes strive to cultivate artistic excellence by providing students with rigorous training, mentorship, and opportunities for creative expression. Click here.

Academic

Apart from their arts disciplines, SOTA students take academic subjects such as English Language & Critical thinking, Literature in English, Humanities, Mathematics, Mother Tongue Languages and Sciences.

Affective

SOTA nurtures leaders who will contribute positively and meaningfully to their community with their creativity and talents. Our affective programmes develop students’ social-emotional skills and leadership qualities.

Learning @ SOTA

SOTA’s arts, academic, and affective curriculum emphasises meaningful learning that provides for experimentation, expression, and discovery across disciplines. The rigorous curriculum stimulates the intellectual curiosity of our students and equips them with the knowledge, conceptual understanding, life skills, reflective practices, and attitudes needed to be autonomous lifelong learners. The six-year course culminates in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) or the International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP).

From Years 1 to 4, SOTA designs its own curriculum shaped by IB philosophy and outcomes, referencing Ministry of Education (MOE) syllabuses. Apart from their chosen Specialised Arts, students take subjects in languages and literature, mathematics, sciences, and the humanities. They also play sports, engage in outdoor activities in Experiential Education, and participate in community projects.

Foundation Years

Years 1 & 2

English Language and Critical Thinking
Literature in English
Mother Tongue Languages
Humanities and Social Sciences
Coordinated Science
Mathematics

Specialised Arts: Dance, Literary Arts, Music, Theatre, or Visual Arts
Integrated Arts
Media Education
Experiential Education
Character and Citizenship Education

Intermediate Years

Years 3 & 4

English Language and Critical Thinking
Literature in English
Mother Tongue Languages
Geography or History
Biology, Chemistry, or Physics*
Mathematics, or Accelerated Mathematics**

Specialised Arts: Dance, Literary Arts, Music, Theatre, or Visual Arts
(Year 3) Service, Action in Community
(Year 4) Local/Overseas Service Learning
Experiential Education
Character and Citizenship Education
Arts Plus (optional)

** Only in Year 4

* Students may opt to do one or two sciences. Once decided, they are to commit to taking these subjects throughout Years 3 & 4.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP)

In Years 5 and 6, students must fulfill the following three core requirements of the IB Diploma Programme:

Theory of Knowledge
Extended Essay
Creativity, Activity, Service

In addition, students will offer:

Three subjects at Higher Level, which includes an Arts subject*
Three subjects at Standard Level from the following subject groups:

Group 1: Studies in Language and Literature

Group 2: Language Acquisition

Group 3: Individuals and Societies

Group 4: Sciences

Group 5: Mathematics

Group 6: The Arts

*except for Literary Arts, which is offered at Standard Level only

International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP)

SOTA’s IBCP is a customised programme for students in Years 5 and 6 who intend to pursue a professional arts pathway. Students are selected based on their aptitude, disposition, and maturity of thought in their artistic development, as well as their interest in pursuing arts studies at art institutes and conservatories.

During the IB years, students will fulfill four core requirements including:

Reflective Project
Personal and Professional Skills
Language Development
Service Learning

In addition, students generally offer:

Three to four Career-related Studies (CRS) in Dance, Music, Theatre or Visual Arts
One Arts subject at Higher Level
One Language Acquisition subject at Standard Level
One optional Individuals and Societies subject at Standard Level

Click here to access the Curriculum Booklet.

Academic subjects:

Specialised Arts

SOTA’s Specialised Arts Programmes aim to develop strong artistic capabilities through critical thinking skills, creative awareness, and discipline. Students enrolled in the school specialise in the specific art form they auditioned for. These are dance, film (offered only from Year 5 onwards), literary arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. Each course is designed to help students achieve mastery in their chosen art form.

All Year 1 and 2 students will also have the opportunity to explore and make connections across the different art forms through the Integrated Arts module, and gain a holistic understanding of dispositions in the arts.

Students have the opportunity to be stretched beyond the classroom through workshops, talks, and learning journeys. In addition, the Arts Excellence Programme (AEP) caters to students who demonstrate outstanding artistic capacity. Aimed at extending their potential, it offers advanced learning opportunities via masterclasses by prominent experts, as well as participation in overseas programmes.

Arts programmes:

Student Development Programmes

The Student Development programmes in SOTA seeks to develop the affective character in our students. This involves nurturing their social-emotional skills, values, attitudes, and dispositions. It focuses on helping students develop empathy, emotional intelligence, resilience, and a sense of responsibility and ethics. Programmes such as Character and Citizenship Education (CCE), Experiential Education, Education and Career Guidance (ECG), community projects, and outdoor expeditions provide SOTA students with a holistic learning experience.

Beyond nurturing students with strong values equipped with 21st Century Competencies (21CC), we also seek to develop emerging future cultural leaders who can be artists, community builders, heritage stewards, creatives and more. They bridge creative and artistic excellence to meet human needs and inspire others to think, feel and encounter the world with deeper insights and greater empathy. Through their learning experiences at SOTA, they will understand the importance of holding space for diversity, uncertainty and dissonance in order to challenge preconceptions and to enable a wide range of ideas to be explored.

Affective programmes:

What is Integrative Learning?

SOTA embraces an integrative learning model that embodies our unique identity as a school dedicated to nurturing lifelong artistic and creative learners.

SOTA students are encouraged and empowered to inquire deeply into their chosen subjects of study, cultivating a profound understanding. Further, they are provided with ample opportunities to navigate the complexities of our 21st century world through purposeful and playful integrative learning experiences.

Integrative learning is the creative act of drawing on two or more disciplines in order to better engage with and respond to complexity. It rides on the creative character of our students and their inclination to draw on the arts and other disciplines to make sense of the world. Through integrative learning, we encourage our students to be active agents in the learning process.

Integrative learning in SOTA is guided by three principles:

Grounded in deep disciplinarity;
Traverses multi-, inter, and trans-disciplinarity; and
Develops dispositions in our students to be artistic and creative learners through life.

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Curriculum and IB Programmes

From Years 1 to 4, SOTA designs its own curriculum shaped by IB philosophy and outcomes, referencing Ministry of Education syllabuses. Apart from their chosen Specialised Arts, students take languages and literature, mathematics, sciences, and the humanities. They also play sports, engage in outdoor activities in Experiential Education, and participate in community projects.