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User:Lsoklich/The Song Room

The Song Room

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The Song Room is a national not for profit organisation that provides free, tailored, long-term music and arts-based programs for children in disadvantaged and high need communities.

The Song Room vision is that every Australian child should have the opportunity to participate in music and the arts to help them learn, grow and become positive forces in their communities. The programs are based on research and have been demonstrated to improve educational and social outcomes and to help schools create and sustain their own music and arts programs.

The Song Room helps schools that need to re-engage with their students and who are in the most marginalised communities in Australia. It’s hard to believe, but there are 700,000 children across Australia without teachers who specialise in music and the arts.

The Song Room Target Groups

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The Song Room targets its efforts to those who need these opportunities the most, providing tailored programs to disadvantaged children who would otherwise miss out. In particular, it now undertakes a range of specialist programs for such children, including: Socio-economically disadvantaged school communities with no access to music / arts; Indigenous communities both in urban and remote rural regions;Learning, health and disability challenges in special schools;New arrivals and English as a second language;Disengaged, behavioural problems and areas of high juvenile crime to re-engage at school;Early intervention programs for children (0-5 years) and parents in disadvantaged areas;and geographically isolated and remote schools.

The Unique Nature of The Song Room Programs

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The Song Room programs are unique in that they:are free to schools, targeting only the most disadvantaged communities to bridge gaps;are long-term to achieve broader educational and social impact;are tailored to a particular school / community requirement;build capacity for long-term sustainability;include a range of music and arts media;are developed to be integrated across the curriculum; and,adopt a partnership approach.

The Song Room provides a range of free programs to schools and communities that otherwise would not have access to such opportunities. Currently it provides long-term, intensive programs to over 200 schools nationally, as well as capacity building and online programs to hundreds of other membership schools.

The Song Room offers a range of tailored music and creative arts-based programs including: Long-term school workshops (minimum of six months per school);Community school holiday intensives involving parents and families and the broader community;Interactive performance programs;Significant capacity building and resources to build self-sustainability in each school;Strategic partnerships and collaboration with arts-based and community-based organisations; and, a well designed evaluation and research component for its programs.

The Song Room Impact

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Ongoing rigorous evaluation of The Song Room programs has demonstrated their effectiveness in delivering outcomes consistent with the international research across a range of program contexts. Emergent themes from evaluations conducted with principals/teachers in the 250 program schools in 2008 include:

  • increased student engagement (90%);
  • increased classroom participation (86%);
  • increased co-operation and team skills (84%);
  • increased confidence (88%); and
  • increased self-esteem (84%).

Recent detailed evaluations include important feedback that Indigenous student attendance is significantly above the State average in program schools and that Song Room programs have contributed to significantly lowered rates of behavioral management incidents and expulsions.

The Song Room National Research Project

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With funding from the Macquarie Group Foundation, The Song Room has commissioned the largest non-government funded, independent research project to examine the impact of such arts based programs on disadvantaged children in Australia.

Phase 1: An extensive literature review of research into the positive impacts of art-based education conducted by the University of Melbourne was completed in 2008 and confirms the unique nature of The Song Room model in Australia, that its design is consistent with international research as well as making recommendations on the research need in the Australian context.

Phase 2: Three projects have been developed to review the impact of The Song Room programs in specific contexts conducted by a number of University and research institution partners (Victoria University, Australian Council for Educational Research, Educational Transformations, and others). The three target populations include: refugee youth in settlement phase (particularly in relation to their educational and social settlement); early intervention in prevention of juvenile crime (where positive school engagement is a key protective factor); and Indigenous youth (where educational and health outcomes are critical); as well as a fourth project conducted by ACER undertaking an overall analysis of arts-based interventions across a range of program types including the impact on school attendance, attitudes and engagement to be published in June 2010.

General Public Fundraising Campaign

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The PlayAir campaign launched in 2010 to help raise funds and awareness of the The Song Room cause. From July 1st to August 16th 2010, Australians were asked to buy an air instrument and record their best air moves in a national fundraising campaign to win a stack of prizes and help The Song Room. With celebrity endorsement from Dylan Lewis and Mark Holden, the campaign aimed to highlight the huge number of children from disadvantaged and marginalized communities who have little or no access to music or art programs and materials despite the significant benefits that such programs provide.

“Air instruments” sold nationally in partner outlets JB HiFi, Allans Music, Spotlight and other independent stores, an interactive website, an online competition, outdoor publicity "air busking" stunts and a savvy media strategy all formed part of this innovative, interwoven campaign designed by BADJAR Ogilvy, Yello Brands and DTDigital.

References

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