More government funds in 2024 for music in South Australian public education as its wide benefits well proved
From 2020, five schools in the Limestone Coast southeast region of South Australia proved the benefits of music eduction during a three-year pilot programme run by Scott Maxwell, teaching artist mentor in South Australia for The Song Room, a non-profit education organisation, and its Transformational Learning Through Creativity project.
Image courtesy The Song Room
The South Australian government committed $7.5 million over three years from 2024 towards expanding music education in schools with its wider benefits being proved.
This followed the release of a Setting the tempo report on research supported by Alberts The Tony Foundation’s Music Education: Right from the Start and the South Australian education department. The report’s survey of teachers and representatives from 115 public primary schools identified the benefits of music learning in the classroom.
Almost all teachers agreed that music improved students' educational experience by 97% with a positive impact also on literacy and numeracy skills (94%) and reduced stress and anxiety among students (94%). The government investment would go towards meeting the agreed need for more resources: buying more musical instruments for schools; extra training and upskilling non specialist teachers to become music teachers; and having music spaces and rooms available at schools. Music education included singing, playing a musical instrument, songwriting or composing. Under the Music Education Strategy, music would be part of students’ regular learning, rather than a special activity.
The benefits of music in schools also were shown by the three-year pilot programme from 2020 at five schools in the Limestone Coast southeast region of South Australia, by The Song Room, a non-profit education organisation started in 1999 to create change for young people through the power of music and arts learning. The South Australian government, along with the Australian and Victoria governments were supporters of The Song Room plus corporate sponsors and private donors.
Scott Maxwell, its teaching artist mentor in South Australia, led The Song Room’s Transformational Learning Through Creativity pilot programme in the Limestone Coast schools. Maxwell worked closely with teachers to build their skills and confidence to deliver quality music learning. Students’ engagement and at school increased, and school culture bloomed: “The transformation in the students, the staff, the leadership and the attitudes towards the arts has been monumental. You get the feeling that you’re making a difference in their life. Not just their school life but their life in general.”
The programme culminated in the Transformational Learning Through Creativity Huge Day Out where students, teachers and principals from the five schools gathered at Millicent Civic and Arts Centre for music making on a large scale, with more than 400 singing, stomping and practising music together.
