As the year drew to a close, the annual Elementary School Art Show at Dehong Shanghai came to a warm and successful conclusion. Continuing last year’s immersive “walk-through” experience, students, teachers and parents from the Elementary School explored diverse campus spaces together. Guided by music performances and visual artworks, they were immersed in the vibrant atmosphere of art growing freely across the campus, witnessing the rich learning outcomes students achieved over the semester.
The exhibition opened with welcoming remarks from The Head of ES Matthew Coleman, who congratulated students on their artistic achievements, thanked teachers for their dedicated guidance and inspiration, and expressed appreciation for parents’ continued support and partnership.
This is a moment of reunion for the entire Dehong community. We come together to celebrate the season and the Dehong spirit—creativity, connection, and the children’s natural joy. These works reflect our students’ effort, imagination, and growing confidence, and we are immensely proud of all that they have created.
——The Head of ES Matthew Coleman
A Feast of Performing Arts: Listening to the Rhythm of Growth
The Elementary School performing arts programme at Dehong Shanghai is rooted in the Orff–Kodály approach, developing students’ musical literacy and ensemble skills through singing, movement, and instrumental performance. Students explore a wide range of instruments, including xylophones, Chinese drums, steel tongue drums, and ukuleles, while learning to appreciate music from different cultures, allowing every child to experience the richness of global musical traditions.
The ES Art Show opened with a dynamic drum performance, as students’ powerful rhythms interwove across drum surfaces, echoing the heartbeat and boundless enthusiasm of youth. Each beat resonated with growing confidence and instantly ignited the atmosphere. Students from different year groups then took the stage in turn, confidently demonstrating the musical knowledge and skills they had developed throughout the term, vividly tracing their learning journeys and growth.
Grade 1 and 2 students presented choral performances of Edelweiss and Jasmine Flower, showcasing their steadily improving vocal expression. Accompanied by recorders, guzheng, piano, violin and guitar, the layered timbres revealed the early foundations of ensemble performance. Lively singing-and-dancing pieces such as Shake It and rhythmic rap transformed the space into a joyful rhythm game, reflecting the outcomes of playful, movement-based rhythm training in class.
Grade 3 students demonstrated their learning through two contrasting pieces. The choral performance My Motherland and I highlighted their growing control of pitch and melody through score reading, while the upbeat Rabbit Dancebrought rhythm training to life through coordinated movement and precise beats. Grade 4 students performed The Best Day of Our Lives and Chinese People, showcasing their developing understanding of compound metre and early pentatonic composition, gradually expressing musical layers and emotion through melody and rhythm.
Grade 5 students took the audience on a vibrant journey through diverse music and cultures. Ratoh Duek brought Indonesian traditional song and dance to life through rhythm and movement; an excerpt from the musical Matilda, Revolting Children, reflected a leap from cultural understanding to stage performance; and performances on gamelan instruments such as metallophones and steel tongue drums revealed distinctive harmonies and rhythmic beauty. Together, these performances illustrated students’ growth within a multicultural musical context.
A Colourful Visual Arts Exhibition: Encountering Creative Beauty
In the Art Valley space, visual artworks by students from Grade 3 to 5 were thoughtfully curated by the Elementary School art team and harmoniously integrated with natural greenery. As students, teachers and parents moved through the space, it felt like walking through a living artistic forest—pausing, flowing, and discovering new surprises at every turn, where creativity and nature breathed in unison.
The exhibition vividly showcased students’ progressive creative development. Grade 3 explored the theme “The Emotional Connections We Share with Our Most-Loved Beings”, investigating colour theory and psychology to express emotions through colour, with each artwork resonating with inner feeling. Grade 4 focused on “The Principles of Drawing”, using self-portraiture to systematically master contour, light and shade, and proportion, building a rational understanding of form. Grade 5 explored “Alien, Obscure Forms”through hand-built clay work, creating imaginative three-dimensional forms through shaping and assembling, and expressing sculptural language and textural aesthetics. From collage storytelling to drawing studies and 3D construction, the works across year groups reflected both curriculum progression and students’ steadily unfolding journeys in visual expression.
Our students have been working with incredible dedication to share their talents, whether through performance or a variety of visual mediums. This showcase is a testament to the creativity and hard work that fills our classrooms every day. It’s more than a performance; it’s a window into the vibrant world of learning and imagination your children experience.
——Matt Tollitt, Head of ES Creative Arts
The Dehong Shanghai ES Art Show was not only a display of semester learning outcomes, but also a vivid expression of the school’s commitment to holistic education. From rhythm games to gamelan ensembles, from collage-making to ceramic sculpture, every note and artwork bears the imprint of students pushing boundaries through experimentation and growing through exploration. At Dehong, art is not merely about acquiring techniques—it is about cultivating resilience, confidence, and expressive ability.
Dehong Shanghai remains dedicated to supporting students’ personalised growth through structured curricula and professional resources, while creating an immersive environment where art can be performed, exhibited, and created as part of everyday learning and life. Every performance and every artwork seen is a recognition and empowerment of each child’s unique growth journey. Through this sustained artistic cultivation, we are delighted to have seen Dehong Shanghai students receive a professional offer from Berklee College of Music, the world’s largest independent contemporary music college—the first music-specialist offer received by a Dehong graduate. This milestone marks a significant breakthrough for the student and stands as a strong testament to the school’s depth and effectiveness in music and arts education.
Looking ahead, we will continue to expand the boundaries of arts education, opening more windows for children to perceive, explore, and create. May every young learner carry their passion forward and continue to grow through this ever-unfolding artistic journey.
