Somerset stopped to gather together and celebrate music education, in a performance involving students across the Junior School on Thursday 6 November. Instrumentalists and choristers from all year levels had been preparing for this event for the past term, as part of Music Count Us In.

This program is Australia’s biggest school initiative, and in 2017 celebrated its 10th year. Over 600,000 students from 2500 schools joined to be part of the united ensemble, where students sang the same song on the same day, at the same time. The musicians and students reflected on the lyrics and how music allows us to shine together, as we work collaboratively to create beautiful songs.

Music Count Us In works to help bridge the gap in music education across the country, by celebrating the benefits of music and providing resources for schools. Did you know research shows that learning to play a musical instrument enhances verbal memory, spatial reasoning and literacy skills? Some of the other benefits include that performing raises self-confidence, self-discipline, improves social and team work skills, helps lift student engagement in school whilst at the same time being a lot of fun, extending creative minds and providing children with a means of self-expression.

We are so lucky to have quality music education at Somerset, and passionate young musicians who not only excel in their chosen music path, but participate and share their talents through performing within the schools ensemble programs. It is so much fun to play and sing alone, but performing in a group is really something special. We are fortunate to have quality music lessons which are developmental, sequential and continuous across the Junior School. Thank you to students in the Cool Cats Choir, Melodic Mynahs, Junior Chorale, JSO1, Junior Concert Band and Recorder Ensemble for your beautiful singing and playing. A big thank you to Mr. Owens, Mrs. Rowe, Mrs. Little and Mrs. Moffatt for performing, conducting and preparing ensembles for this event.

If your child enjoyed the performance, perhaps they might be interested in joining one of our ensembles to join in next year’s performance. Music is for everyone and is so much fun when we can shine together!

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