NSW Primary School Teachers Set for TunED Up Program with the Sydney Symphony

Fifty primary school teachers, hailing primarily from public schools in regional NSW and Western Sydney, will travel to Sydney this month to participate in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's highly successful TunED Up teacher-training program. The SSO doubled its intake of teachers this year following the overwhelming positive impact of the 2014 TunED Up pilot program on schools across NSW.

The teachers will spend five days participating in intensive music workshops with SSO musicians and staff, who are specialists in music education, learning the skills and techniques they need to confidently and effectively teach music to their students.

The program was devised in response to alarming results of recent studies conducted by the University of New South Wales, which found music is the subject that causes teachers the most stress in their teaching and is frequently neglected in NSW primary schools. This indicates that music is not emphasised enough in teacher training, despite being a mandatory subject in the NSW school curriculum.

"University studies have shown that participation in music learning does so much to enhance the cognitive, physical and social development of a child," SSO Director of Learning and Engagement Kim Waldock said. "Unfortunately, many primary school teachers lack the sufficient skills and confidence to teach music as well or as often as they would like, and this is where the TunED Up program comes in."

According to research by the Music Council of Australia, the time allocated to music in Australian universities is a maximum of 17 hours in undergraduate primary education degrees and 10 hours in graduate primary education degrees. This contrasts significantly with teaching degrees in other countries, such as Finland and South Korea, which provide 270 hours and 160 hours of music training respectively.

Teachers participating in TunED Up have been selected for their passion for education, enthusiasm to bring music to their classrooms, and willingness to share this training with their communities.

Participation in the program will enable teachers to develop their musical experience, pedagogy and classroom practice, instrumental knowledge and competence with digital music resources.

According to Ms Waldock the reach of TunED-Up extends far beyond the teachers who attend.

"We worked out that the average reach of our 2014 TunED-Up teachers was 400 children annually -- and that was just the children with whom the teachers had direct contact. Even more students are reached by the colleagues our TunED-Up teachers are sharing their new skills with," Ms Waldock said. "We estimate that at least 8000 children benefited directly and indirectly from TunED Up in 2014 and with our expanded intake this year we expect that number to double."

Cobar Public School teacher Kylie Harvey attended the workshop in 2014 and says her whole school (located in remote western New South Wales) has benefited from her TunED-Up experience.

"It was wonderful coming back to school after the program and being able to pass on what I had learnt to other teachers in the school and encourage them to implement the concepts in their own classrooms," Ms Harvey said. "The idea that has really shone through is that you can fit music in to whatever you are teaching."

TunED Up has been made possible due to the generous support of Fred Street AM & Dorothy Street. Additional support has been provide by Anne Arcus & Terrey Arcus AM, Ian & Jennifer Burton, and Ian Dickson & Reg Holloway.

TunED Up forms part of the SSO's award-winning education program and is accredited to the National Professional Standards through BOSTES. For further information on TunED Up, visit: www.sydneysymphony.com/education/for-schools-teachers/professional-learning- workshops/tuned-up!-scholarships.aspx.

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