Students sing for national gig

MORE than 500 students from Peace Lutheran Primary School (PLPS) and Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC) joined forces to sing their lungs out with more than 500,000 other students from about 1600 schools around Australia.

The children sang a theme song written by high school students titled Come Play Your Part and it was a very powerful performance for the biggest school gig.

The performance was held at the new undercover area at PLPS on Thursday, September 2 and the song was sung at 11.30am sharp (AEST) and there was entertainment from the ‘Ploggle' choir and, which consisted of students from both schools, and the ukulele group from OLGC.

Music Teacher, Rowena Scott, was overwhelmed by the success of Music – Count Us In 2010.

“This is an initiative of the Music Council of Australia with the idea of getting as many Australian school children to sing exactly the same song, on the same day, at the same time,” Mrs Scott said.

“They did a review of music education in Australian schools and thought it wasn't good enough.

“So they did something that is free and was all available online – it is a wonderful idea.

“With the combination of the two schools, this would mean there were nearly 500 school children singing – arguably the biggest school musical event that Gatton has ever seen,” she said.

Mrs Scott said the free day of music was instigated to get kids more involved as there is not enough music in schools.

“I am teaching both schools and there are students learning ukulele via a quick and easy method,” she said.

“It is important to learn music at school because it teaches them all sorts of wonderful things such as discipline, self-control, team work and they get to use both sides of their brain.

“It helps with numeracy and literacy, motor skills and it touches the soul.”