Every child has a right to a quality music education, taught by a well-trained music teacher. We support the mentoring of music teachers in early-childhood education settings, primary schools, and high schools. Many teachers lack training and confidence and need professional development from expert mentors so that they can bring music into the child’s school day.
A quality music education brings a wide range of benefits. This has been shown to be the case through extensive research – it is well known, yet many Australian children miss out.
We want to change that, because…
Music is unique. It enhances the child’s learning experience. Quality music education develops a wide range of skill areas and requires high levels of concentration. It develops auditory and neural pathways for learning, evokes responses, builds intrinsic motivation, opens the imagination, enhances individual creativity, and leads to higher performance levels across a range of subject areas including Mathematics, Science and Languages. Music fosters a sense of connection and forges lifelong friendships.
In 1998 Cottage School of Music (now Cottage Music Institute) was founded, offering a unique form of Musicianship and Choral Training to students of every age from 2 years through to university level, as well as Professional Development programmes for teachers.
The Cottage Music Foundation was established to support the mentoring of specialist music teachers and general classroom teachers in early-childhood education settings, primary schools and high schools.
Cottage Music Foundation will provide scholarships to talented students needing support in the area of aural training and related music theory. The Foundation will also provide scholarships to university level students and graduates looking to advance their aural training, harmony, and related pedagogy at tertiary level in both Australia and Overseas.
The Cottage Music Foundation was formed to help achieve Micheál McCarthy’s vision of helping teachers to teach music and supporting students who show exceptional talent through bursaries and scholarships.
