How well did Janet implement the design process. This is Janet
Janet is a young and vibrant music teacher who transferred to Palabaca State high School and was told that her stay there would be short as the music program is closing and she could look forward to another transfer at the end of the year.  She wasn’t keen on another transfer and needed to do something innovative to revitalize the program and make it a valued part of the schools curricular and extra-curricular programs. She saw there was a desperate need to change and put steps in place to make this happen. 

The school
The school is in a low socio-economic suburb of Brisbane and the population consisted of various cultures and families of varying income levels. At the time of Janet’s arrival declining enrolments and a negative culture were prevalent. There were many behaviour issues that seemed to be allowed to continue without very little consequences and this heightened the bad culture.  

The movement of students to neighbouring school or private schools impacted the music program. Many of those making the choice to move were high performers in Janet’s music classes and in the ensembles at the school.  This exodus of music students was also encouraged by the instrumental teacher who taught at the three main feeder Primary schools and didn’t want change to happen.  He wanted the instrumental program to close so he could transfer out of the area. He also did not like the changes Janet initially made because they impacted his routine, requiring him to make changes as well.  

The music classes
Class numbers of the music course were small and often not enough to have a single year level class for the subject. This meant that classes were composite with year 9 and 10 together for junior music and year 11 and 12 together for senior music. Having these composite classes meant a considerable amount of extra planning and assessment for delivery of the subject. Composite classes created further challenges of putting students with different maturity levels together in one class.

Time to make change
In the first weeks at the school Janet set up organised forums with the students where they were allowed to freely talk about music. Students discussed what their opinions were, their experiences at the school, and share their likes and expectations around their learning and musical futures. A wide array of reasons for students not choosing music as an elective subject in junior and senior classes were identified. A major problem was that, because the school was small, they were unable to choose music   because they needed other subjects to go to university. Many felt the theory and compositional aspects of the subject was too difficult as they didn’t have a good foundation in the theory of music. Some considered the theory boring but loved playing music.

Janet was lucky that the school’s Music Committee and the Parents and Friends Committee organised a welcome day to meet the new teachers. Here, Janet had the chance to talk to many of the parents of her students who provided a lot of information.  Parents identified similar points to those mentioned by students, as well as complaints by students that they didn’t like the choice of music played in the bands.  Students believed that the band conductor had favourite students who always were given the leader roles. 

Restructure the curriculum
Working within the constraints of the Queensland curriculum Janet took a designedly approach to the creation of the junior curriculum and took much consideration to the responses she received from the students.  She designed a challenging but more interesting course where the first year of entry to learning music (Year 8 music program) was more practical in the way students experienced and learned the elements of music.  All students entering Year 8 had to take music for two lessons a week.  The classes for this entry level were set up in two tiers – those who were interested in learning a musical instrument and those who were interested in general music but didn’t want to commit to and learn an instrument. 

The instrumental class performed in each lesson.  Students developed the skills of playing and were able to understand music through playing and performing. They became confident in the theory of music, writing music for themselves and other students, as well as becoming confident in performing.  Janet worked with the students to understand the music they liked to listen to and play and how they liked to learn music.

The other class of non-musicians who had an appreciation for music learned the theory through listening to music they liked. These students even performed some of their music for their peers; something they never thought they would do. Classes were very much a practical approach to learning – learning through doing. 


It was important to place these students in the correct class so, to find out which students had the aptitude to play an instrument, Janet had all students take a simple aptitude test. Those who scored well were offered instruments to learn. For some, this was their first instrument. Many were very happy to be considered as they were often overlooked by the instrumental instructor.

The demise of the Instrumental Teacher
The Instrumental teacher refused to take some ensembles and give up time to rehearse. The students, parents, staff, and Principal wanted these opportunities for the students to perform and were not happy with the instrumental teacher. As a result, he was transferred out to another district. Janet took on the position of conductor of these ensembles for an initial stage, as well as leading the vocal ensembles while a new instrumental instructor was found.  

Building a better culture
Initially Janet recruited one staff member who was always ready to support and help when the ensembles were performing or even going to music camp. Each year the number of staff leaders grew, and they did a lot of the work to build connections with the local community, shopping centres, feeder schools and even wider communities.  These leaders worked selflessly to provide the opportunities to allow the performing ensembles to tour Queensland and New Zealand. The students within the music program valued the leadership given by these staff members and valued the relationships that were created. This often meant that the respect that was developed in these connections build a better culture in other areas of the school as well. 

Make the program public 
Janet knew it was imperative to make the program visible to gain support within the school and from the public. To continue the development of the program Janet had to show the positive aspects of school music and dispel the previous negative opinions about the school.  Through the work of her leaders, connections were made with the local council and shopping centre. This provided the ensembles with an avenue to publicly perform the repertoire they were rehearsing. They promoted the various ensembles at the feeder primary schools’ assemblies to show that the school had professional quality performing ensembles. This public demonstration also extended to Janet’s own school through performing at every opportunity to build the school community’s awareness of the positive results. 

Support to the Program
Each year the program had grown and now is viewed in the public eye as a great success. The parents’ support group started a fundraising event to allow the ensembles to purchase new band and ensemble uniforms.  The council saw what Janet’s music program had created so provided funding to buy instruments the ensembles needed to make them complete.  This funding also enabled the purchase of instruments to resource the developing classroom music classes.

After ten years 
Even though Janet moved on from Palabaca State High School to be a Head of Department at another school, the program is still running and continues to grow.  The classroom music program has large single grade music classes (not composite) and many students have continued to study music at tertiary level, going further and working as professional musicians.  The performing ensembles have grown to be large band ensembles and even having junior and senior ensembles, new ensembles, and choirs.  Before leaving, Janet worked with the principal to recruit a committed and enthusiastic band instructor who has continued to develop a love of music in the students of Palabaca State High.