Evaluation of a five-year intensive music education program at St Marys North Public School has found it improved students’ learning, physical development, behaviour and attendance.

St Marys North Public School is the only school in Australia in the Foundations program developed and run by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) in collaboration with teachers and orchestra musicians.

Students aged six and older have a 15-minute music lesson every school day and small group tuition in the difficult instruments of violin and cello.

Teachers have been trained to deliver music lessons and the young musicians perform regularly, including with the ACO and its Artistic Director and Lead Violinist Richard Tognetti.

Principal Lisa Parrello said ACO Foundations had brought the gift of music to children who had never, or rarely, learned an instrument before.

“It’s a high-quality education program that provides equity of access to music and it’s been a game-changer for our students and our school,” she said.

“We watch the students go into the music room and pick up their instruments and they are calm and focused. It’s joyous.”

There are now 180 students from years 1 to 6 who have participated in the program and last week they performed for the NSW Governor, Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley, at the ACO’s theatre in Walsh Bay, cheered on by 160 parents.

ACO Foundations is an in-school program which uses music learning to improve the developmental and educational outcomes of children in low socioeconomic status schools.

St Marys North Public was chosen as the ACO’s participating school due to its very low Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) value and because the principal, Mrs Parrello, was committed to educational innovation.

“No other known music education program in Australia has modelled and proven the significant benefits of music learning among students who are experiencing disadvantage, and how these benefits can reach children across multiple years of learning in a school context,” the ‘ACO Foundations Evaluation Report 2018-2022’ said.

The pedagogical model is based on research by neuromusical educator Dr Anita Collins, which shows learning a musical instrument before the age of seven can make permanent changes to the structure and functioning of the brain.

The model recommends students participate in an intensive instrumental program for three years from Year 1 to the end of Year 3.

The ACO’s evaluation studies the first two years of the Foundations program, which started at St Marys North Public in 2018 but was disrupted by COVID lockdowns and school closures in 2020 and 2021.

Year 2 students at St Marys North Public School will be the first cohort to complete the three-year uninterrupted program at the end of 2024.

The pilot program began in 2018 with 25 Year 1 students who took part in Foundations for two years. From 2020 it was expanded to all Year 1 students and by 2022 the music program was available to all students in Years 1 to 3.

Four ACO instrumental educators and seven classroom teachers participate in the program on a weekly basis.

Students can join the school’s Super Strings performance group after Year 3.

Scaffolding of skills

The St Marys North Public School students progress through sequential steps, starting with learning to sit and stand with correct posture, to holding their instruments and their bows, plucking open strings correctly, playing repertoire of increasing difficulty, singing and reading musical notation.

“Scaffolding of skills from listening, memorising, and repeating (vocally and on instruments) in the early stages, through to reading and playing simple and then more complex written notation, has assisted students in fine-tuning their auditory and visual processing skills – the critical foundations required for strong spoken language and reading development,” the report said.

The collaboration of the school’s teachers, who receive professional development in delivering digital music lessons created by the ACO, was another factor behind the success.

“The co-teaching relationship between instrumental teacher and class teacher, the continuous feedback loop, and adaptation and tailoring of teaching methods to suit individual students, means that no student is left behind, and all students experience the benefits.”

Mrs Parello said the program had been particularly beneficial for students with specific needs.

A selective mute student who rarely communicated verbally in class with students or teachers had taken to the violin “like a duck to water” and discovered she had an “incredible amount of talent”, the report said.

The Year 6 girl, who joined ACO Foundations when she was in Year 2, now speaks freely and easily when she is in her music class. She is the first person in her family to learn a musical instrument.

“She and her mum now search for classical music to listen to together,” the report said.

• ACO Foundations Evaluation Report 2018-2022 by Dr Anita Collins and Tara Smith, ACO Director of Learning and Engagement, is available on the ACO website.
• ACO Foundations is supported by Crown Resorts and Packer Family Foundations and the NSW Department of Education.