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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-11-01 Daily Xml
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Instrumental Music Service

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:20): Information on page 16 of Your Child Their School Our Future on the Public Education Action Plan, released in October this year, under the heading 'Building on our strong traditions of music education', states:

Musically creative activities at school help children and young people to develop contemporary skills. We will support young people to contribute to music and be part of the growing creative industries in South Australia.

We will develop a new music strategy for South Australia. This builds on the 19 music focus schools we recently created that have made learning to play a musical instrument a whole lot easier for more students.

We will shape the music strategy in partnership with Adelaide University's Elder Conservatorium of Music and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

It is good to see the work of the Instrumental Music Service (IMS) and its support of South Australian public school choirs and music camps acknowledged as a 'strong tradition' because that is exactly what the dedicated teachers of music in the Instrumental Music Service have established, despite everything, and maintained until now.

Recent changes to the way music programs are delivered in schools has caused great upheaval. In my time in this place, I have witnessed many moves on the Instrumental Music Service. Every few years we seem to see rallies and parents gather. Most of these challenges have been seen off, and the program has continued. Everyone who knows the value of music in producing well-rounded individuals wants music to be available to more students in more schools. The devil is of course in the detail, as instrumental music fosters individuals on particular instruments to enable the ensembles and orchestras of the future.

Music and the love of performance start very early and may take a while to evolve. That is why access to Instrumental Music Service programs has been so successful. In my own electorate, Modbury High School is a stand-out, and I have sponsored music prizes in each of the schools in my immediate area for many years. This award has been very successful, with some of the recipients going on to make music their careers, and I take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge the work of all the music teachers.

My own children were part of a great music program at The Heights school early in their school years but, as the teacher moved and was not replaced, instrumental music was no longer a major focus for the school, where it is universally recognised that drama and the visual arts have been spectacular, until the return of music specialists, which has seen this school once again make a mark with the enormous pool of talented students available to them. Generations in Jazz, which I have always spoken about in this place, has been a major impetus and is now internationally recognised, with Mount Gambier being the centre of the South Australian and perhaps even the Australian jazz universe.

The composite orchestras that support the South Australian public schools' choirs concerts each year are another testament to the value of the Instrumental Music Service teachers. But things have definitely changed. I hear the collaboration with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Adelaide University's Elder Conservatorium, while wonderful and a natural extension, do not and cannot be the starting point for young musicians.

These institutions have no background in teaching students in or at primary level where students have not already reached the standard required. Surely, this means that music education will not be accessible to all, regardless of the experience or standard. The fear is that, in diluting the Instrumental Music Service program to the current extent, schools will only be able to offer meaningful music lessons by introducing private providers, as not all schools can provide all instruments without the support of an IMS-style program, meaning concentration on some instruments to the detriment of others.

The consultation necessary to get the best outcomes seems to have bypassed the people on the ground yet again. Are the new partnerships being subsidised by the Department for Education and Child Development? Is there new money, or is it coming from the existing budget lines? Lately, there seem to be huge amounts of money available for infrastructure—and that is a really good thing, although at the cost of the sale of the LTO (and all of that is still to be evaluated). Hopefully, music will be recognised as just as essential to the strong STEM and other academic endeavours in schools.

Music helps to round out people because different parts of the brain are engaged. Many major intellectuals acknowledge that music and/or sport have helped them, and so it remains that the arts play a vital role in helping each student reach their full potential. The Instrumental Music Service is an equitable program, deserving of its funding and greater support because it provides access to students at the very beginning of their musical lives.

I have seen the expertise of the Instrumental Music Service make schools that are not designated special interest music places to be places of excellence and produce students who then go on to places like Marryatville and Brighton, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Elder Conservatorium of Music. I hope that the Department for Education will listen to students, parents, teachers and those who understand the nurture needed to create great musicians when they evaluate the changes they made to the Instrumental Music Service in the past two years. One size does not fit all and, by having IMS in schools, you will cater for the many in an equitable way, without outsourcing another essential part of government services.

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