Music Match is a living directory of the very best music education opportunities currently available for teachers and learners in South Australia. As this site undergoes trial and testing, Carclew is also scoping functions within the portal to facilitate equitable access for disadvantaged schools and students.
Working in collaboration with outstanding music education providers such as Adelaide Festival Centre; Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Adelaide Youth Orchestras; Musica Viva In Schools; Music Teachers Mentoring Program; Primary Schools Music Festivals, Music Match aims to provide schools with the most up-to-date access to the very best music education opportunities available for learners and teachers in South Australia. The selection of our Provider partners is informed by the SA Quality Music Education Framework, as published by the SA Music Education Strategy.
The Highlights
Music Match has engaged with 14 schools and partnered with outstanding music education programs and influencers such as: Musica Viva; Adelaide Festival Centre; Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; the Playford 10 strategy; and Anita Collins: Bigger Better Brains.
Music Match provided over $135,000 to support opportunity and participation:
- 147 registrations for teacher training within 24 accredited professional development intensives.
- Over 4,600 tickets for vulnerable children for 57 concerts or music performances,
- 5 bespoke masterclasses and 1 international tour for instrumental students.
Carclew’s partner is website developer, I-Nex, for Music Match online: a site that connects professional music education services with teachers and schools and addresses issues of equity and access by providing a facility for donations to support participation for all.
Music Match was supported by Tim Minchin with a donation of a portion of his 2019 BACK tour donated to Carclew.
Music Match Stakeholders
Music Match stakeholders are committed to navigating music education impediments for disadvantaged schools and are dedicated to creating solutions that are responsive and appropriate. The leading stakeholders within the collaboration (so far) include:
• SA’s flagship not for profit music organisations (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra; Adelaide Festival Centre; Musica Viva SA; Adelaide Youth Orchestras; Northern Sound System)
• Dept. for Education (Instrumental Music Services; Primary Schools Festivals of Music)
• Primary Schools (Alberton; Elizabeth Grove; Elizabeth South; Elizabeth Vale; Kaurna Plains; Fraser Park; Murray Bridge South; Mypolonga; Tailem Bend; Jervois)
• Playford Music Pathways Partners (Playford International College; Northern Sound System; Playford Data Observatory; Instrumental Music Learning Pathways)
• Central Advocates (Dr. Anita Collins: Neuromusical Educator; Emily Kelly: SA State Manager, Musica Viva Australia; Dr. Ali Elder: Research Specialist; Emily Gann: SA Council, Australian Society for Music Education; Geoff Day: Day Family Foundation)
Pilot Program
Carclew’s Music Match pilot was a model of collaboration that connects distinguished music organisations, disadvantaged primary schools, and philanthropic trusts, not just to each other but also to the vast opportunities, resources, and mutual benefits of their programmatic needs and organisational objectives.
Music Match was born from a desire to ensure our most disadvantaged primary schools are accessing the best music education opportunities available. The project began late in 2017 with a firm remit to scope the opportunities for collaboration within music education and then trial a program of delivery, to a sample of pilot schools catergorised as disadvantaged, across the 2018 school calendar.
The project demonstrated the value of specialist music education in South Australia’s disadvantaged primary schools, via a coordinated system of delivery. The heart of the concept is that no child should miss out on quality music education experiences because of social and/or economic disadvantage.
The benefits of musical learning go well beyond the development of language and reasoning. Children who play music demonstrate better auditory attention and can isolate patterns from surrounding noise. Pattern-recognition skills are vital for developing literacy and numeracy. Music Education also improves the development of spatial intelligence, a skill we need to perceive the world accurately and form mental pictures. Music enlivens our sensory receptors; it is asking for responses from more than our ‘thinking’. Children exposed to musical learning have higher self-esteem and are better at developing emotional regulation skills. Both sides of the brain are exercised through learning music, strengthening vital neural pathways in young brains.
Music Match aimed to:
• Advocate the value of music education across the learning spectrum.
• Work collaboratively, across government and community of practice, to demonstrate the value of embedding music education in the crucial learning years.
• Improve access to important information by establishing an agile system that can respond to the unique music education and resource needs of specific schools.
• Ensure that disadvantaged children receive fair access to music education opportunities.
• Improve teacher confidence via excellent ‘teaching through music’ professional development.
Banner image: Guitarist Tommy Emmanuel with five aspiring guitarists playing music together – Photo by Kelly Barnes