Music

The music teacher provides a well-balanced, fun curriculum for the students at St. James School.

Classes meet once a week in the O'Gorman Center. The students are exposed to music theory, music history, musical performance, and liturgical music. The curriculum is based on the National Standards of Music, the California Standards for the Arts, as well as the Diocesan Guidelines for music in Catholic schools. Children in Grades 4 and 5 are taught to play the recorder. Students in all grades play various rhythm instruments, as well as the handbells. Often, movement and art activities are incorporated in the lessons.

Twice a year, at Christmas and springtime, there are evening performances in the church. Plan on arriving early to get a seat; the church is always filled to capacity!

Hands on Art provides a rich and varied art experience to over 6,000 elementary and middle school students in the South Bay. Sixteen public and private schools in Redondo Beach, Torrance, and Lomita participate in the program, including St. James School. A group of parents developed the program in response to budget cuts that had affected the arts.

Each year a theme is chosen and a design committee, made up of docent volunteers from the member schools, chooses six projects from works submitted by local artists. The chosen artists conduct workshops to educate the parent volunteers (docents) who then share the projects in the classroom with the students.

Each child has one (or more) of their Hands on Art projects saved to be included in a school art exhibit at the end of each school year. (This selection is done in a totally non-judgemental way, often by alphabetical order.) This exhibit also includes art projects performed with the classroom teachers and California Mission assignments.