While
we move into Term 3, I must apologise for the Term 2 ENews coming out later
than expected. I have been nursing a leg
injury, and writing to Federal electoral candidates. Both have consumed much of my time and
energy, so with a ‘quieter’ week, I can now report on the many and varied
activities that we are aware of across the sector.
FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Throughout
the Federal election campaign, the Strategic Working party put together a base
letter to deliver to every candidate across the major parties. After introductions, we outlined a brief
history of the landscape, and finished with key recommendations that we believe
would push the Victorian agenda forward:
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ANY ELECTED
GOVERNMENT
sMAG recommends that whether in
government or the Senate, Any elected candidate commits to;
· Universal provision of music education
in Australian schools from P-8 by the start 2022 academic year - five years to
allow for pre service training of music education specialists. Public
service teachers provide long-term investment in schools, working in
communities over decades.
· Ensuring that the Wiltshire/Donnelly
recommendation that Music be delivered as a stand-alone subject, is implemented
into the Australian Curriculum, and that the Australian Curriculum provides a
sequential, continuous and developmental pathway for all students from P – 8,
delivered by an expertly trained, specialist teacher.
· Creating and promoting a national
quality/best practice framework for music in schools.
· Appointing a Commonwealth Education
minister who then seeks the agreement of the COAG Education Council
in requiring schools and systems to report on their music education activity
annually from 2017.
· Adopting a variation on TEMAG
recommendation (Rec 18) that teacher-training institutions provide students
with the opportunity to specialise in a STEM subject and an
arts subject – namely Music. Effectively STEMM. Meaning that in the
medium term the teacher training institutions and teacher registration bodies
are training and accrediting sufficient graduate teachers with the requisite
skills in music to achieve the goal of universal provision; P – 8 Classroom
music, instrumental music experts and ensemble teachers.
Responses
from the major parties:
· Labor promised to fully
fund Gonski, pre service training in general and deliver more support for
special needs students: http://www.laborsplanforeducation.com.au/ As far as music
specifically goes, Mr. Shorten made announcements at The Malthouse, against
which we made a response and published here: http://smag-schoolmusicactiongroup.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/federal-labors-election-promise-of-2m.html
· The Liberal party also
promises to fund education in general as published here: https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan/putting-students-first The party sent a letter back about ‘Jobs and
Growth’ from a Mr. T. Nutt. I will make
no further comment here.
· The Greens policy is
around a ‘lifetime of learning’ in a sustainable education process: http://greens.org.au/lifetime-of-learning They also responded with a letter around
education in general, and an interest in consulting with us further should they
win government.
Individual
candidates wrote back affirming their enthusiasm for music education, each of
which I published on the sMAG Facebook page.
In
order to push the Federal agenda forward, a National strategy with
collaborators from every state is needed.
Initiatives such as the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts,
Math) social media posts are good, yet they need to be backed up with academic
evidence and consistent lobbying efforts.
I look forward to hearing from National colleagues around what can be
achieved next. In the meantime, if you
would like to support the STEAM campaign, please download the separate
attachment with the ENews, and post to your social media accounts. In the near
future, sMAG will write to the new Federal education minister and outline the
history, research and needs of the music education sector in Victoria, and how
Federal policy can add momentum to strengthening delivery.
VICTORIA – THE EDUCATION
STATE – Music Education
As
we moved through Term 2, we saw the development and implementation of many
improvement points against the Victorian Inquiry into the Extent, Benefits and
Potential of Music Education 2013. We
now see announcements around improving pre-service teacher training. The Victorian government has announced this
week, a major collaboration with the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of
Music. We celebrate this announcement,
as the building will stand for hundreds of years! The Music community has a real opportunity to
embrace the support and make the best of it!
Quote from the Press Release: "Melbourne’s Southbank is set to become one
of the world’s best training grounds for the arts, with the construction of a
new Melbourne Conservatorium of Music to add to the best cultural precinct in
the nation.
Acting
Premier James Merlino today announced the project – a partnership between the
Andrews Labor Government and the University of Melbourne – which will expand and
relocate the University’s elite music education and research facility from
Parkville to Southbank, opening to students in 2019."
Quote from Daniel Andrews' Facebook Page:
"Say you've just finished high school in
Victoria, and you're an absolute gun violinist or pianist, and you have your
heart set on a career travelling the world in a famous orchestra.
Well,
right now the first thing you would do is move overseas, because the music
conservatories in Europe are second to none.
That's
all about to change.
Today,
I can announce that we're going to build the Melbourne
Conservatorium of Music (MCM) in Southbank.
It'll
be the world's best training ground for musicians of every instrument and every
discipline.
And
it will create 2,000 jobs."
--
Quote from Gary McPherson:
Yes, this is really great news for our
Conservatorium. It’s been a very very long time coming but the new
building will really make a huge difference. I’ll attach a photo of what it
will look like (it will be located immediately behind the MRC).
We’ll still retain the Parkville (old)
conservatorium building plus also the St Kilda Road music building and hope to
get a fourth building at Southbank that is a dedicated practice facility for
our students. The new building however, will house most of our performance
program.
I have a very large ARC grant in that I should
know the outcome of by the end of this year. It would help establish a hub for
the teaching of instruments to rural students who don’t have access to
specialist teachers. If we get the funding we’ll also be embarking on
professional development courses for teachers, streaming concerts and lectures
and workshops and trying as best we can to support music teachers throughout
the state. We had a very successful all day session at the Melbourne Recital
Centre a few months ago where our two wind symphonies performed with another 5
school ensembles. Next year, I’m hoping to expand our connections with school
ensembles by booking the MRC for a few more concerts.
There’s so much to do but at least we’re
making some progress on a few fronts. With a new building it will be so much
easier to do more of the things we hope can support music in schools
Gary
Gary
Professor Gary McPherson
Ormond Chair of Music and Director
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music
The University of Melbourne
But Wait There’s
More…!!!....
Deputy Premier and Education Minister, Mr. James Merlino, this
week visited Gippsland with major announcements (pinch yourself, this is
real!).
Music rooms to be built
for Morwell Park Primary School.
"Minister for Education James
Merlino and Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing today visited five local
schools that will benefit from this record investment in school infrastructure.
Mr Merlino turned the first sod to mark the start of construction on the new
Morwell Park Primary School, which will include new classrooms, a library, arts
and music spaces." Harriet Shing MP is the Victorian parliament's
ambassador for Music Education.
The commitment from the Andrews’
Victorian government can clearly be seen.
Mr. Merlino is so committed to ensuring the roll out is completed, he
has appointed Ms. Harriet Shing MP to the role of Ambassador for music
education. Ms. Shing is pictured to the
back/right of the photograph.
My personal response ‘Funiculì, Funiculà , Funiculì, Funiculà …..’
We celebrate the commitment from the
Andrews’ government, and now endeavour to make the most of what we have been
given. We can be energised to invest our
time and energy into delivering excellence in education, with such wonderful
support and belief in our sector.
Mr. Carl Williams and I, met with
Ms. Harriet Shing MP at parliament house in June where we enthusiastically
discussed the progress, the challenges and strategies to move the agenda
forward. Ms. Shing herself received a
rich and extensive music education during her schooling years, having studied
Cello, played in the orchestras and participated in the wide array of
performances her school had to offer. We
welcome her appointment, and look forward to a long association.
Further……
Following
the evidence presented around the VIT PTT draft policy, sMAG received a
personal letter back from Mr. Merlino outlining how he takes our concerns very
seriously. We presented a lot of
evidence, and can be assured that it will take time to work through all the
matters. We now wait for the minister’s
decision.
We
were also instructed to contact Jo Patterson of the VIT, should any cases of
concern be brought to our attention. We
did then have a further conversation with Jo Patterson who assured sMAG that
the community can report any advertisements of IMT’s as ES directly to her
office. The VIT will then engage their
compliance measures, commencing an investigation process and contacting the
Principal concerned.
VCAA: Specialist Mentors in Music
The VCAA have postponed the appointment of
this next round of mentors. Applicants
were informed via email, and we expect news to come through some time in Term
2. Enquiries about the Specialist Teacher role
can be directed to: Alan McLean Email: mclean.alan.w@edumail.vic.gov.au
BASTOW
SEMINAR SERIES
We have not heard of any further seminars being organized at
this point in time.
THE SPECIAL NEEDS REVIEW
sMAG welcomes the commitment the
Victorian government is providing the Special Needs education area. All the implementation plan points will
highly develop the area and increase student outcomes. Needless to say, sMAG made a submission to
this review in 2015, led by Dr. Helen Farrell, and we are thrilled with the
outcomes of the review.
The Education State – Early Childhood
Framework.
The
VCAA have published the final VEYLDF http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/earlyyears/vfldoutcomes/index.aspx The documents are to be
read in conjunction with the first 3 levels for the Victorian Curriculum. We welcome the inclusion of The Arts, and
specifically Music in 2 of the interactive areas. The connection to the Victorian Curriculum
enables Early Years practitioners to connect with a rich Music Curriculum and
develop their plans substantially. Quote
form the document:
The Victorian
Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) is structured around
five interconnected Learning and Development Outcomes for young children.
§ Children
have a strong sense of identity (identity)
§ Children
are connected with and contribute to their world (community)
§ Children
have a strong sense of wellbeing (wellbeing)
§ Children
are confident and involved learners (learning)
§ Children
are effective communicators (communication)
The Illustrative Maps are provided as examples to support a
continuity of learning between the VEYLDF Learning and Development Outcomes and
the first three levels of the Victorian Curriculum F-10.
PD AROUND THE STATE
MUSICAL
FUTURES CONFERENCE
The Big Gig conference was a great
inspiration to many in the field. Our
own Nadine Brown led workshops on Vocals in the classroom. Many professionals went away inspired to
adopt relevant and engaging music education strategies.
