A new music program aims to strengthen Emmanuel’s position as a leading school in music and performance and enhance academic success and student wellbeing.
Emmanuel College has long been a school of choice for senior music students from around the district with students from seven or more secondary schools enrolling in Emmanuel’s highly regarded VET Music course. The introduction of this new music program will build on the College’s established excellence in contemporary music and will see students begin to excel in traditional music and instruments of the orchestra.
The students commencing Year 7 at Emmanuel College in 2017 will be the first to benefit from the exciting new instrumental program in which all Year 7 students at the College will learn a musical instrument.
Emmanuel College will provide the instruments and all associated costs are covered within the existing school fees, so there is no additional cost to parents for this ambitious new program.
A significant part of the impetus for the new program was a 2013 enquiry conducted by the Victorian Parliament into the extent, benefits and potential of Music Education in Victorian Schools. The findings highlighted the fact that in addition to the intrinsic value of learning music, music education can have many other benefits for students, including:
Music education is widely recognised as one of the keys to raising literacy and numeracy standards and individual academic success. Anita Collins - a researcher in neuroscience and music education at the University of Canberra describes music education as the neural network enhancer, saying that, “Two decades of frenzied research has now found that music education grows, hones and permanently improves neural networks like no other activity. Children who undertake formal, ongoing musical education have significantly higher levels of cognitive capacity, specifically in their language acquisition and numerical problem solving skills. They also continue in education for longer, reverse the cognitive issues related to disadvantage and earn and contribute more on average across their lifetime.”
In the new Emmanuel College Music program, students will learn a woodwind, brass or percussion instrument in small groups from expert tutors. Students who make good progress will be invited to play in ensembles and bands as part of the extra-curricular program.
The Head of Performing Arts at Emmanuel College, Mr Ian Leonard will lead the implementation of the new program. Ian said, “ The benefits to the human brain of learning music have been known for a long time. There is evidence that making music actively engages the brains synapses and increases the brains capacity. Students who learn music can significantly improve their outcomes in mathematics, reading and other skills. Introducing instrumental music as a core subject will provide a huge long-term benefit to students and to student outcomes.”
In November the Member for Wannon Mr Dan Tehan announced $1.9 million in Commonwealth funding to refurbish the McAuley Campus Hall. The funding will enable the Hall in Ardlie Street to be transformed into a performing arts centre. Work will commence on transforming the hall, which was opened in 1980, to create spaces including a ‘black box’ theatre, plus rehearsal, tuition, ensemble and band areas. The facility will also allow the College to introduce dance to its curriculum.
