Performing Arts
At XWA, Performing Arts includes Theatre and Dance from Kindergarten to Grade 12, with specialist teaching, dedicated facilities, and a clear progression through the IB years.
750-seater Auditorium
Drama Studios
What Your Child Studies
Every specialist teacher brings professional experience in their own discipline, whether Theatre or Dance.
In Theatre, students learn performance, directing, devising, and design. In Dance, they study choreography, contemporary styles, cultural dance, and movement.
As students move through the IB years from PYP to MYP and into the senior years, they continue building artistic skills, reflection habits, and creative inquiry over time.
Students Take Centre Stage
Every year, XWA stages major performances that give students experience both on stage and behind the scenes.
These include:
- Annual secondary school musical and drama productions
- Student roles in performance, choreography, technical theatre, and stage management
- Arts Week performances and workshops with visiting artists
- Student-led performance events including Street Dance, K-Pop Team, and XCL's Got Talent
- Opportunities for selected students to join workshops and youth productions across Singapore
Dance Studio
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Digital Projection and Stage Technology
Where It Leads
Students can pursue IB Diploma Theatre in the senior years, while continuing to deepen performance and production skills through showcases, productions, and leadership roles.
XWA's wider Arts programme has supported applications to leading universities internationally. By graduation, students can leave with substantial experience in rehearsal, performance, creative collaboration, and production.
What Our Students Say:
Meet Marilena, an XCL World Academy graduate now pursuing Theatre at Northwestern University.
Her time at XWA nurtured her passion for performance and gave her the confidence to pursue it at the next level.
XWA Graduate 2023, Pursuing theatre at Northwestern University, USA
FAQs
Get answers to the most common questions from prospective parents about our school.
No. The programme welcomes beginners and experienced students alike. Teachers differentiate for all skill levels.
Students can take part in musicals, drama productions, Arts Week performances, student-led events, and in some cases workshops or youth productions beyond school. Opportunities vary by age and pathway.
Yes. Performing Arts sits within the wider IB curriculum. In the senior years, students can pursue DP Theatre alongside other subjects, while the skills built through rehearsal, collaboration, and performance support learning across school.
Students can take on roles such as stage managers, technical crew leads, choreographers, and event organisers, building responsibility through student-led productions and events.
Still have questions?
We're here to help!
Visual Arts
At XWA, the Visual Arts strand brings together Visual Arts and Media Arts from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Students work across studio practice, digital media, and design with specialist teachers in purpose-built studios, build a progressive body of work through the IB years, and can pursue the IB Diploma in Visual Arts in the senior school.
Visual Arts and Media Arts, Taught by Specialists
Students work across drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography, film, digital design, and advertising, guided by specialist teachers with professional experience in their field.
The programme is structured around the IB continuum.
In the Primary Years, students explore visual arts through inquiry and creative experimentation.
In the Middle Years, work is assessed against the MYP Arts criteria, building the technical ability and analytical habits needed for senior study.
In the Diploma Years, students can pursue DP Visual Arts, developing a sustained body of assessed work alongside their other subjects.
Expression Through Exhibition
Student work at XWA is created with presentation and exhibition in mind. Students exhibit work in dedicated gallery spaces, present to parents and invited guests, and build a body of work that grows year on year.
- MYP Arts Showcase: assessed exhibition of Middle Years studio work
- DP Visual Arts Exhibition: two-year IB portfolio exhibited publicly to parents, peers, and invited guests
- Arts Week: school-wide exhibitions and workshops with visiting artists
- Field trips to galleries, design labs, and cultural events
- Workshops with visiting industry professionals
Where It Leads
Students can pursue the IB Diploma in Visual Arts in the senior years, developing assessed portfolio work alongside their other DP subjects. The programme builds the technical skill, discipline, and critical thinking that sustained arts study requires. XWA's wider Arts programme has supported applications to universities internationally.
By graduation, students can leave with a creative portfolio built over multiple years, experience presenting their work publicly, and the discipline that sustained studio practice develops.
What Our Students Say:
Meet Izumo Kawabe, who turned a childhood passion for storytelling into an international filmmaking journey, starting at the Academy of the World.
At XWA, he developed his creativity, leadership, and global perspective, shaping both his path in film and who he is today.
XWA Graduate 2024, Studying Film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, USA
FAQs
Get answers to the most common questions from prospective parents about our school.
No. The programme is designed for students at all levels, from those exploring art for the first time to those deepening existing skills. Teachers differentiate for different starting points across the programme.
Students can explore multiple disciplines, particularly in the Primary and Middle Years. In the senior years, the IB Diploma timetable shapes what combinations are possible.
The Grade 12 Visual Arts Exhibition is a public showcase of each DP Visual Arts student's two-year IB portfolio. It is open to the school community, including parents, peers, and invited guests, and forms part of the IB Diploma assessment.
Depending on grade level and chosen pathway, students work in areas including studio painting and drawing, sculpture, mixed media, photography, film production, and digital design. The programme broadens creative range in the early years and deepens it in the senior years.
Still have questions?
We're here to help!
Music
XWA's Music programme covers four areas from Kindergarten to Grade 12: ensemble performance, choir, composition, and music technology. Students develop as musicians across collaborative and performance contexts. Every teacher has professional experience in their discipline, so students learn technique, repertoire, and ensemble practice in the way working musicians approach them.
Ensemble, Composition, and Music Technology, Taught by Specialists
The programme follows the IB continuum.
In the Primary Years, students explore music through performance and creative play.
In the Middle Years, work is assessed against the MYP Arts criteria, developing technical skill, the ability to interpret and respond to music, and the reflective habits that sustained practice requires.
In the Senior years, students can pursue DP Music, developing composition and performance work alongside their other DP subjects.
Performances, Productions, and Student-Led Events
Music students at XWA perform throughout the year across a range of contexts, including:
- Music recitals and ensemble concerts throughout the year
- Ensemble and choir performances
- Arts Week music performances and workshops with visiting music professionals
- Battle of the Bands: student-organised and student-run
- XCL's Got Talent: student-led from planning to performance
- Opportunities for selected students to join workshops and youth productions across Singapore
Where It Leads
Students can pursue DP Music in the senior years, developing composition and performance work as part of the IB Diploma. XWA's Arts graduates have been admitted to leading universities internationally, including Berklee College of Music.
By graduation, students can leave with substantial experience in performance, composition, and sustained musical study.
FAQs
Get answers to the most common questions from prospective parents about our school.
No. The programme welcomes students at different starting points, whether they are learning an instrument or voice for the first time or building on existing experience.
Yes. Music sits within the wider IB curriculum. In the senior years, students can pursue DP Music alongside other subjects, while the skills built through rehearsal, composition, and ensemble work carry into how students approach other subjects.
Students can participate in band, orchestra, and choir.
Check with our admissions team for the full instrument list.
Students can take on roles as ensemble leaders and event organisers through events like Battle of the Bands and XCL's Got Talent, building responsibility through student-led productions.
Still have questions?
We're here to help!
What Your Child Gains Over Time
Research shows that students in bilingual programmes often make strong gains in both language development and overall learning. In this programme, students not only learn two languages, but also learn through both languages—using them to think, communicate, and solve problems across subjects. This strong bilingual foundation prepares students well for the IB Middle Years Programme.
By this stage, your child will have spent years reading, writing, discussing, and interpreting increasingly complex ideas across subjects in two languages, developing both academic proficiency and confidence.
See the Arts Programme in Action
Visit the auditorium, studios, and rehearsal spaces, meet the teachers, and ask what your child could create here.