No music teacher until high school? This charity fills the gap

Music class at Taree Public School has become one of the reasons the children want to come to school.

After learning to play drums and read music, year 6 student Cooper Hamilton-Riley enjoys the challenge of creating a beat with both hands and feet.

"[It] just feels fun to hit the drums hard and makes me really focus on one thing," Cooper said

Cooper and his classmates at the school take part in once-a-week, curriculum-based music session run by Matt Zarb from the not-for-profit, Australian Children's Music Foundation (ACMF).

In New South Wales, public schools don't have a dedicated music teacher before year 7.

"That's like saying I'm going to teach you to read when you're 13,"

Mr Zarb said.

"All these little children who've got so much music in them with no opportunity."

The ACMF supplies the instruments for their classes targeted at students at regional, remote and disadvantaged primary schools

The project is funded by a mixture of philanthropy and fundraising.

Mr Zarb worked with Cooper's class to harness their musical talent to write a song and film clip that showcased Biripi culture.

"It makes me feel stronger about my culture and happy to be Biripi and Aboriginal," Cooper said.

The school's Aboriginal Education Officer, Toni Baxter, who worked on the cultural dance, language and traditional dress, said the project has brought confidence and pride.

"I've just seen the difference when they first started they were very shy and as we kept coming together they felt comfortable and their confidence just grew."

The ACMF's music program at Kempsey South Public School saw a 13.6 per cent increase in student attendance between 2022 to 2024.

ACMF made a submission to a NSW parliamentary inquiry in 2024 that examined inequity of music education in primary schools, the benefits of quality music education, the resourcing challenges and potential solutions.

The state government response made 30 recommendations to deliver over 10 years between 2025 and 2035.

Some of the recommendations include introducing arts and music specialisation in initial primary school teacher education, and funding development to upskill teachers to have the confidence to deliver music in the syllabus.

The also proposed building further partnerships between artists and musicians and external arts organisations and schools, as well as increasing funds for outside organisations to deliver education and training for teachers.

In a statement, Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Carr said the 10-year plan for music education in public primary schools would be released in the coming weeks.

Music helps the brain develop

Anita Collins, a neuro-musical educator and consultant and adjunct associate professor at the University of Canberra, said research showed learning music improved the brain's ability to learn.

"As soon as you do music you're actually improving the pathway for language," Dr Collins said.

"It also improves many parts we then apply to numeracy — it's an area called the abstract thinking network — and mathematics is one of those."

She said the education system nationally needs to ensure all students have access to quality music education.

"There are so many not-for-profits and they're doing an excellent job and they're bringing their expertise to schools and to generalist teachers who've never learnt a musical instrument.

"But we shouldn't be relying on not-for-profits to fill a gap that should be filled by the education system."

Matt Zarb also works with teachers on ways to deliver simple musicology in the curriculum, in a creative way rather than relying on videos.

"I would love to see myself out of a job," he said.

If there isn't funding for a music teacher, he said, a solution would be to employ a music and creative arts teacher to cover three schools, or a full-time job to cover the whole school of 500 kids.

For now, Taree Public School principal Di Murray said the ACMF was vital to ensuring her students got a comprehensive music education.

Ms Murray said their generalist teachers could deliver the required music curriculum, but it made a difference having a professional musician come in.

"The difference is here you have Matty who just has this love of music, he's a performer, he's so animated in his teaching and just motivates not only the students but the teachers as well," she said.

"I just like to think that every child gets the musical experience that our kids do, whether it's through ACMF or a teacher that has that skill that goes around to each classroom."

She said attendance had "improved immensely" since the ACMF program began at Taree Public in 2014, matching the state average at times which was 90 per cent in September 2024.

Matt Zarb said if a child was happy, they would learn well.

"If the kids are getting a chance to experience, read and play music, sing … their whole existence is better at school."