Music Count Us In

We are very pleased to announce that following representations by The Music Council of Australia, ASME and the AMA, the Australian Government has committed to supporting Music.Count Us In again.

Music.Count Us In is thousands of school kids around the nation all singing the same song at the same time on the same day.  Last year around half a million kids participated and Minister Garrett joined in on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra.

Total funding is $450,000, of which $150,000 has been earmarked for professional development.

MCUI is a key activity run by Music.Play for Life, an MCA program which receives significant funding from the AMA's Music Makers fund.

It is designed to deliver on two levels:

• To raise the status of music in schools by providing a high profile, musically sound activity which schools can run cost effectively and which can engage the entire school community
• To encourage more schools to start a music program, by providing them with an activity which is cheap and simple to run, and providing the teachers with the PD to make it happen.  The PD can then be applied to any singing activity thereafter.

We know that, sadly, many schools have little or no budget for music.  Getting them started with singing is a great way to create a music activity that costs little or no money.

Indirectly, this is Music Makers money at work.  The government relations advice that enabled us to appropriately ask for this money was funded by Music Makers.This is the third year Music.Count Us In has been run,  We thank the Australian Government for their continued support.

Sara, Australian Music Association .