Using music to empower young people

 

Through your donations, students at Whittington Primary School are gaining confidence while learning how to work together as a team thanks to a weekly music and creative arts program run by The Song Room.

A $15,000 grant from the Give Where You Live Foundation allows The Song Room to focus on developing students’ school engagement and improve their learning outcomes, socio-emotional wellbeing and community connectedness.

As part of the program, Whittington Primary School took part in the 71st Geelong Schools Music and Movement Festival at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre in August.

The festival gave students from Foundation to Year 6 an opportunity to shine in a professional theatre environment through song. It also gave students an opportunity to observe a variety of performances from approximately 40 schools in the City of Greater Geelong Region including dance, circus acts, rock bands, orchestras and concert bands.

Students thoroughly enjoyed their first experience on stage in a large theatre. As one student said, “I got more confident of singing loud and expressing my voice.”

Another student wrote a poem to express their joy:
“Before you came into our lives.
Our singing gave peop
le hives!
Thanks for all that you’ve done.
You make singing really fun.
We got to see a mermaid play and perform on a stage that made our day.”

 “We endorse The Song Room’s approach to student a

nd community consultation and engagement, and recognise the need to engage parents and the wider community in the life of our school. As a staff, we have discussed the benefits associated with music and creative arts involvement, such as, fostering positive learning, and increased sense of belonging and social inclusion,” Barrie Speight, Whittington Primary School Principal.

In addition, the students under the guidance of The Song Room’s Adelle, composed a new song for the school ‘We Are Whittington’! 

The Song Room is one of Australia’s leading national not-for-profit provider of music and arts programs for schools. The Song Room develops creative engagement programs for schools that are proven through research to:

  • Reconnect disengaged students by improving engagement in learning, confidence, teamwork, problem solving and wellbeing;
  • Improve numeracy and literacy and lift academic performance across the curriculum including NAPLAN by up to an entire school year;
  • Promote equity, effectively levelling the playing field for students with additional learning needs and children from diverse backgrounds;
  • Raise school attendance and reduce absenteeism by up to 65%;
  • Build teachers’ ability to engage students in classrooms through arts-based professional development opportunities.