A Culture Where Music-Making Is What Students Do Every Day
At Mount Carmel College (Australia), music is woven into daily life across the school. Led by Music Teachers Dave McNamara and Dorothy Lincoln, the programme combines strong curriculum provision with an unusually vibrant culture of voluntary participation, where students make music because they want to.
As a K–10 school, Mount Carmel provides music classes for all students up to the completion of Year 8, ensuring every learner develops practical musical skills and confidence. In Years 9 and 10, music is a popular elective subject with several classes running each year, supported by a curriculum grounded in student choice: what students learn, how they learn it, and who they play with is shaped as much as possible by learner decision-making.
Co-curricular music is extensive and inclusive. Students can participate in age-based choirs, primary instrumental groups, primary and secondary string ensembles, a college orchestra, ceilidh band, house bands, and a pipes and drums band. Singing is a shared ritual across the community, with the whole college working towards a mass choir medley each year.
Musical Futures is embedded strongly in the secondary course, particularly through informal learning pedagogy and “In The Deep End” activities. Students regularly choose instruments, repertoire, and ensemble groupings, learning through a process-driven approach that prioritises transferable skills and independence. This has cultivated a culture where music-making is widespread, visible, and normal.
What stands out most is not only the quality of performances, but the volume of music happening daily. Practice rooms are fully booked most break times, and the annual Arts Festival features over 400 students performing, many in voluntary solo and small band spots. This is not music as an elite pathway, but music as a shared social space where friendships form and students find connection.
Composition and arrangement are also core expectations, with units such as songwriting, beat creation, and “Like a Version” reflecting the Musical Futures emphasis on creativity, relevance, and learner ownership. Across the department, performance, respect, and listening culture are actively taught and modelled, ensuring every student has a way in and a reason to stay.