With the time and value given to training aspiring primary teachers in music now at an ‘all-time low’, and recent research highlighting the benefits of music education for children’s development and wellbeing, particularly in a post-COVID landscape of disrupted social connections, PD programs such as those provided by the Australian Youth Orchestra have never been more important.

Music In Me was established back in 2015 by much-loved music education guru Richard Gill to ensure every child has the opportunity to learn, participate in, and express themselves through music.

This, Gill fervently believed, could be made possible by improving access to high quality music teaching and learning in primary schools, through teacher mentoring.

Originally called the National Music Teacher Mentoring Program, to date Music In Me has rolled out in 440 schools, with 808 teachers mentored and more than 14,000 students directly impacted by their teacher’s participation in the program. 

CEO of Music In Me, and former music teacher, Bernie Heard, says Gill recognised the incredible value of music education in the early years of learning, and particularly its impact in other areas of learning, such as literacy, numeracy and wellbeing – and how important it is that music be taught sequentially and ongoing by specialist teachers.

Heard says he started the program with federal funding to essentially identify great music teachers and to support and train them to become mentors. Next came partnerships with different educational jurisdictions to send those mentors into primary schools to deliver a program that’s tailored to each individual teacher.

“So the mentor works alongside that teacher over a series of visits, and they set goals,” Heard explains to EducationHQ.

“They model new skills, they observe, they provide feedback, they assess.

“They open the world of resources to the teacher and suggest other networks and further training, but essentially build the teacher’s confidence in delivering music and also their competence and skill development as well.”

“I was so fortunate early in my career to see how incredibly impactful music can be on other areas of children's learning as well, particularly around language and around wellbeing and social development,” Heard says. PHOTO: Rez Bagheri, New point of view

Music In Me is fashioned in different ways, depending on the needs of schools.

“So in some states, we work most especially with primary school teachers who are a generalist classroom teacher who just wish to improve their confidence in the way they incorporate music into their everyday learning,” Heard says.

“In other regions we’ll have a mentor working with someone who may be newly assigned to be the music specialist in a school, but they may not have specialist music training, and that often is the case in public schools as well.

“They may play an instrument, but they may not know the pedagogy of what it is to teach music in a classroom setting, in a primary school – it’s a very specialised and wonderful skill. It is something that you can’t just pick up.”

The newly scaled back introductory, eight-session “taster” model, now on offer to Western Australian schools, aims to give teachers the confidence to use music in the classroom as part of their everyday curriculum. It’s half the commitment and half the cost of the usual Music In Me program.

Ordinarily, the standard foundational program involves around 16 visits over two terms, with a range of resources provided to ensure the mentor can tailor the learning over that period of time.

“They’ll come in for a quarter or half a day a week over 16 weeks,” Heard says.

“But we do find that that’s a lot for schools to sign up for, and so what we’re offering in Western Australia for the rest of this year is a mini-version of it.

“It’s an abbreviated version, which we have in other jurisdictions as well.

“It’s a really nice way to dip your toe into what it is to be mentored and see what’s possible.”

Recent neuroscience studies show significant links between music and language – and particularly between rhythm and grammar – which may help to address a persistent NAPLAN decline in Year 7 and Year 9 students’ achievement of persuasive writing skills. PHOTO: Claudio Raschelli

Heard says while teachers inherently understand the value of music and creativity in their classroom, they are often stretched and too time-poor to be able to seek out in-person professional learning in music.

“We believe this is a golden opportunity for every principal, parent and teacher,” she says.

“When the mentor leaves, you get to keep that knowledge, skills and practice within your school.”

For remote schools without a local mentor, one will travel and visit intermittently, for several days of intensive mentoring, and maintain contact online between visits.

“So the mentor really assesses what the skills and experience of the teacher is that they’re working with and really meets them where they’re at,” Heard says.

“We provide a range of resources, templates and tools that they can use for goal setting, for assessing their progress along the way, of providing feedback and so on.”

Heard says the other wonderful thing about this model is the teacher who’s receiving the mentoring, doesn’t need to leave their class or their school or work outside hours to receive really valuable professional learning.

“The mentor is with them in their classroom, next to them,” she says.

“So it’s really practical when you’re managing a busy music class, and you’re not used to having a classroom with that kind of energy once you’re giving instruments out; kids are moving around, sometimes that is something that’s just so much more beneficial to have an experienced mentor in the room with you modelling how to how to manage that kind of activity within your classroom.”

At the start of last year, a report revealed that a failure to prioritise music education in ITE is meaning thousands of new teachers are ill-equipped to meet curriculum requirements in the subject.

Led by researcher Dr Anita Collins and Alberts, The Tony Foundation, The Fading Notes: Music Education for the Next Generation of Primary Teachers report found the average music education training hours at Australian universities fell from 17 in 2009 to eight by the end of last year.

In 2022, Professor Margaret Barrett and Dr Katie Zhukov from Monash University conducted an evaluation of the Music In Me program from 2017-2020, through 286 national surveys of teachers, mentors, and principals.

The analysis of the cumulative impact of the program revealed positive effects on students’ emotional, psychological, behavioural, and learning outcomes, both in music and other subjects.

To learn more about the Music In Me programs, head to their website here.

 Any potential mentors or interested teachers, principals or parents can email here to find out more.