Arts program closes indigenous gap in one year

AN arts program for indigenous primary school students closed the gap with their classmates' literacy skills in one year.

Jahmarl Sandy

AN arts program for indigenous primary school students closed the gap with their classmates' literacy skills in one year and raised parents' expectations of what their children could achieve.

An independent evaluation of The Song Room found the proportion of indigenous students receiving As or Bs in English also rose significantly and attendance increased markedly, particularly on days the arts programs were run.

The evaluation, conducted by consultants Educational Transformations, looked at a pilot of three related programs by The Song Room in eight urban, regional and remote schools across Queensland, focusing on students in years 3, 4 and 5.

Researcher Tanya Vaughan said three programs were a workshop teaching students music and art, and training their teachers; an early literacy storytelling program for preschool children; and a community program that involved parents and the local indigenous culture in creating artworks.

The programs were trialled as part of a federally funded parental and community engagement project, and Dr Vaughan said the lift in parental expectations of their children a year later was "remarkable" and potentially important, given research has shown it can boost student achievement by the equivalent of a year of schooling.

While urban and remote schools also showed improvements in attendance and academic achievement, Dr Vaughan said the biggest gains were in the regional schools, which ran all three programs and successfully integrated the local culture in the program.

When parents were asked if they had high expectations for the success of their children at school, the proportion strongly agreeing rose markedly, by 17 percentage points in regional schools and 13 points across all schools.

Hymba Yumba school, an independent indigenous school in Springfield in southwest Brisbane, has been running The Song Room programs since it opened last year, with students creating artworks reflecting their traditional culture to decorate their new school.

Principal John Davis said students were enthusiastic about the art program, which helped to motivate and engage them in their schoolwork, and The Song Room teacher had tapped into the local culture and art to enable students to express their indigenous identities.

"The valuing of art and the art process, that richness is really important in our space and I'd like to see that developed further," he said. "We never use it as a reward or consequence for behaviour; we've always left it as special, a sacred space because it's such an important space for the jajums (young children)."

The Song Room chief executive Caroline Aebersold said the organisation, which is not-for-profit and does not charge schools for their programs, hoped to expand the trial across the nation, but the funding for this year had ended.

"Surely that's what we should be investing in," she said.