EXPLORING
THE ARTS

From Elementary to High School, our students are encouraged to pursue their God-given talents in the Arts.

No matter the student’s talent area, it is our goal to offer a challenging and rewarding elective experience where he or she can grow and enjoy working together with other students, experiencing memorable events, and contributing to the student life at Christian.

Vocal & Instrumental Music

Instrumental Music

Patriot Band

Our concert/marching band consists of instrumentalists at intermediate- to-advanced playing ability, performing as a group. First semester, the marching band competes and performs in local parades and field competitions. Second semester, the concert band is adjudicated and performs in various venues.

Additional band electives include Symphonic Ensemble and Jazz Band. 

Junior High Band

Junior High instrumentalists have the choice of Beginning Jr. High Concert Band and Advanced Jr. High Concert Band.

Elementary Band

Our 5th and 6th grade band program consists of semi-private lessons throughout the school day, along with a full band rehearsal once a week. Our goals are to learn how to play our respective instruments well on our own and as a group, polishing concert pieces for our Christmas and Spring concerts. We strive for excellence in our learning so that, after a year of band, each student should be competent enough in their musical abilities to understand and play their specific instrument (wind and percussion), perform a wide selection of songs, and know how to play as a group.

 

Vocal Music

Concert Choir

Choir is a performance-based class where students get to learn how to use their voices, read music, and perform together with other vocalists. Students will have the opportunity to travel in the spring and share their gifts!

Patriot Praise

Patriot Praise is our high school worship team that helps to lead worship in chapel and sings with the choir. This group is audition only.

Bella Voce

Bella Voce is an intermediate women’s vocal ensemble that requires an audition to join. This group learns and performs a varied repertoire at the intermediate level, singing at festivals and touring around the country! Students grow vocally and continue learning music theory and sight singing skills.

Junior High Choir—Resonate

Students in 7th and 8th grade are welcome to join our Junior High Choir, Resonate. This mixed group will learn singing techniques, basic music theory, and how to read and perform choral music.

Elementary Music & Performance Program

We learn through scripture that we are born to worship; to love God and to be loved by Him. In Kindergarten through Sixth Grade music, our purpose is to joyfully make excellent music to our
God.

In Kindergarten through Second Grade we use songs of worship and take our first steps of music literacy using singing, rhythm instruments and body movement. 

In Third through Sixth Grade we explore music using other instruments, along with our voices, as tools to enhance our worship. In Third Grade we focus on reading music, and in Fourth Grade we learn to play the recorder. Using bucket drums, the Fifth Grade embarks on a rhythm study full of fun. The Sixth Grade studies stringed instruments and learns to play the ukulele.

Our Show Choir performs throughout the year at special events. Students are encouraged to invest their talent to the Lord by performing in a Christmas and Spring Performance as well as leading worship in Chapel. Psalm 57 declares, “I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”

Dramatic Arts

Theatre

High School Theatre I

Theatre I is an introductory class exploring many aspects of theatre. Students are given an overview of set-building, properties, costumes, and stage make-up. Basic theatre history and beginning acting skills will also be learned. Each student performs in a scene/ monologue showcase and/or one-act play.

High School Advanced Theatre

This class is an audition only course. Upon acceptance, students in this class will present several major productions during the year. Class time is spent in rehearsal and preparation for these productions. This class gives students the unique opportunity to put their theatre knowledge to real world use!

Technical Theatre Production

This course presents fundamentals of stage design, set and property construction, costumes, and make-up, as well as the principles of stage lighting and sound. Students will learn all responsibilities of a production crew including the jobs of stage manager, director, and assistant director. Technical Theatre is also a continuation of learning the above technical elements of theatre and is a hands-on application of skills learned while offering design challenges. This course is open to all high school students.

Junior High Theatre

Seventh and eighth grade Drama is a year-long course that introduces students to an overview of acting and performance techniques. Students learn basic theater vocabulary, acting styles, and memorization techniques while focusing on creative movement, voice control, and character development. The semester class ends in a class play performed for parents.

Musical Productions at Christian Elementary

All of our elementary students also enjoy dramatic arts through in their Christmas and Spring productions each year. Drama Club is an additional after-school activity available for students with a particular love for performing.

Visual Arts

Art

High School Art

At the high school level, Christian High students can choose from three levels of art: Art I, Art II, and AP Studio Art. Students develop observation and technical skills in drawing, painting, design, printmaking, and sculpture while developing confidence in creative and visual expression. With an emphasis on studio production, our art program is designed to develop art appreciation, higher-level thinking and problem solving, art-related technology skills, art criticism, art history, and aesthetics. 

 

Junior High Art & Video

A one-semester course alternating with Eighth Grade Drama, Eighth Grade Art introduces students to the basics of drawing, painting, and more. A one-year video course in digital video is also available to our eighth graders. 

 

High School Photography & Film

Introduction to Photography is a non-darkroom course that introduces students to basic camera function and care, an introduction to using Photoshop to edit and enhance photos, and create digital art.

Digital Video Production allows students to use their own creative ideas to create short films both individually and in groups. Second-year Advanced Video Production students assist with chapel production, in addition to creating other video projects on campus.

Elementary Art

At the elementary level, art instruction enriches the classroom environment throughout the K-6 curriculum. 

Family Statement of Faith

  • The Statement of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our beliefs.  The Bible itself, as the inspired, inerrant, plenary, and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe.  For purposes of CUSSD’s faith, doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, Shadow Mountain Community Church is CUSSD’s final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.
  • We believe that there is one God eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, and His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through the shedding of His blood, in His bodily resurrection on the third day, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and In His personal pre-millennial return to rapture His Church before the Tribulation and His glorious appearing to set up His Millennial Kingdom.   
  • We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith, apart from works by the merit of the shed blood of Christ, and that the born-again believer is eternally secure in Christ.
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
  • We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
  • We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • We believe in the individual priesthood of the believer.
  • We believe life begins at conception.
  • We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning; the uniting of one biological man and one biological woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. (Gen. 2:18-25.)  We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a biological man and a biological woman who are married to each other. (1 Cor. 6:18; 7:2-5; Heb. 13:4.)  We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
  • We believe that the Scripture dictates standards of sexual behavior. The unique roles of the male and female are clearly defined in Scripture. Any promiscuity, homosexuality, gender identity issues or other deviations from Biblical principles is a sin that is offensive to God (Matt. 5:18-19; I Cor. 6: 9-10, 19-20; Eph. 5:3-5; 1 Thess. 4:3-8).

SCHOOL-WIDE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

We expect our students to be:

Influential Christians who:

  • Accept the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior.
  • Apply Biblical principles as the foundation for moral and spiritual living.
  • Develop and maintain an informed Biblical worldview that shapes their lifestyle choices.
  • Demonstrate God’s love through acts of service and sharing the gospel.

Investigative Learners who:

  • Master a body of knowledge, vocabulary, and skills.
  • Understand, analyze, and order relationships among facts.
  • Assess their needs and apply appropriate strategies to learn concepts and skills.
  • Actively use the tools of learning throughout their lifetime.

Perceptive Thinkers who:

  • Identify, analyze, discriminate, prioritize, and apply information.
  • Have the ability to solve problems by thinking independently and logically.
  • Make responsible and well-reasoned decisions.
  • Actively seek and apply absolute truths.

Effective Communicators who:

  • Demonstrate the ability to accurately understand, interpret, and exchange information.
  • Communicate with eloquence, creativity, and persuasion in writing and in speech.
  • Develop and utilize artistic expression.
  • Proclaim and defend the gospel with wisdom, wit and respect.

Quality Producers who:

  • Demonstrate a growing knowledge of curriculum.
  • Develop their God-given talents and abilities.
  • Display standards of excellence in all pursuits.
  • Work well with others toward a common goal.

Responsible Citizens who:

  • Respect and submit to authority.
  • Actively protect and promote freedom and democracy.
  • Enjoy God’s creation and live as good stewards within it.
  • Recognize and contribute to meeting the needs of others.    

ENGLISH PROFICIENCY MINIMUMS FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

GradeTOEFL JrTOEFLiTEPDuolingo
6700NA3NA
7750NA3NA
8800503.380-85
985050-603.385-90
10NA60-703.590-95
11NA70+3.895+

research links & INformation

Web Research Links:

Grolier Online (includes Encyclopedia Americana)
User ID: christianhs
Password: patriot

EBSCO Host Research Databases – Full-text Periodical and Reference Articles Online
User ID: christianhs
Password: patriot2019!

SIRS Knowledge Source – Periodical articles online
User ID: CA3906
Password: PATRIOT

San Diego County Library Website
Enter library card number; enter last four digits or phone number for PIN or, for newer users, make your own PIN.