Year 7 & 8 Performing Arts classes in Term 4 have been transformative experiences for our students and staff involved, visibly (and audibly!) benefitting from the curriculum and co-curriculum sphere.
We have all read about the benefits of music education - improvement in academic performance, confidence, creativity, discipline, as well as the development of spatial-temporal skills that are useful for STEM careers. What better way to make it accessible and inclusive for all our Year 7-8 students than to have it in their curriculum programme.
This term, students were taught by specialist music staff and itinerant tutors in their timetabled classes either a wind (flute, clarinet, saxophone), brass (trumpet, trombone), string (ukulele, guitar), or percussion (drumkit and bucket drumming), with the end goal of playing a Christmas carol (on wind and brass instruments) or 4-chord pop song (on guitar and percussion) together as a class band.
From the loud ‘toot toot’ noise that drove our admin staff up the walls in the Auditorium foyer, to the ‘chugga chugga’ strumming patterns of the guitars (followed by a few "my guitar pick got stuck inside my guitar" comments), students were pushed out of their comfort zone trying an instrument for the first time (or a completely different instrument if they already knew how to play one).
We worked on smaller steps to achieve our ‘class band’ goal at the end of each lesson, and after the initial bumps and hurdles, we saw students getting into small groups, helping each other achieve a better musical sound. It’s not "I can’t do this," but "let’s work on it together so we can all do this." You see the changes in their attitude, their willingness to listen and the team spirit to achieve the class goals set each session.
We were also able to encourage students who are making bigger steps into the junior strings and bands, arranging 3, 5, 7 note parts to play with the orchestra and concert band at Broadway Extravaganza Showcase in November.
I am so proud of the students for giving instrumental learning in a classroom setting a go, and for supporting each other in the process. The reflections at the end of a class earlier this week included one student who said, "I thought I was bad at music, but I can actually play properly now!"
There will be opportunities for Year 8s to continue their instrumental learning in the Junior Strings and Wind lunchtime sessions, and the Year 7s to continue learning their instruments in class next year as a balanced dance, drama, music programme in the Year 7 & 8 Performing Arts curriculum.