Every Tuesday is an exciting and special day for students at Wingham Brush Public School.
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That's the day local musician and Australian Children's Music Foundation (ACMF) tutor and ambassador, Matt Zarb comes to teach the entire school the joys of playing musical instruments.
The school now owns an impressive collection of 30 brand new red and blue ukuleles, a full drum kit and a bass guitar and amplifier, all recently donated by the ACMF through its Bushfire Recovery Music Program.
Prior to the unexpected donation, school principal Kylie Seaman had arranged to borrow Chatham Public School's collection of djembe drums, given to them by the ACMF, but the arrival of COVID-19 made the implementation of that idea too difficult. So she went and bought a big bunch of djmebe drums herself.
After the delivery of the ACMF instruments to the school, the students received a visit from Don Spencer OAM, former Play School presenter and founder and CEO of the ACMF, with an ABC News crew from Sydney in tow. Matt Zarb was also there to hold a massed lesson for the occasion.
Matt Zarb is a self-described 'huge' supporter of Wingham Brush Public School, having known Kylie and some of her teachers for many years.
He's also been a supporter of the ACMF for five years, and has been working with students from Chatham and Taree Public Schools, and Taree High School.
His foremost reason for supporting the ACMF, he says, is because of the benefits it brings the children, and in turn their mental health and wellbeing.
"To get a program to start takes a fair bit of work from the ACMF. But with the bushfires - the ACMF thought it would be a great place to do some work because of all the children that were affected by the bushfires," Matt said.
"As we know, music is a great healer. The program was started as a bushfire recovery program, to get these kids who had been struggling with being displaced and all of the anxiety that went along with that, let alone COVID.
"It's all geared at supporting children's mental health; giving them an opportunity to play music. We don't have that in Australian schools - the general Aussie primary school doesn't have a music teacher.
"When you're teaching that many kids it's absolute, all guns out from the very get go until the moment you walk out. Even at lunchtime there are kids still playing. I'm on my break and the next thing you know the kids are in there playing drums and playing bass, and I just let that happen, and so does Kylie and the teachers. They let the kids keep experiencing that," Matt said.
"Our senior boys are just loving it," Kylie Seaman said.
"They've been taking turns, and they are basically playing the same song over and over. They've got two on ukuleles, one on drums, and one on the bass guitar and they're learning to be a band and they just rotate so they get a bit of experience on each instrument. And they're kids that just find mischief, and this has just really enthralled them, they are just absolutely loving it."
For listeners the sound coming out of the school hall during lunchtime might be noisy and monotonous with a band of four boys playing the same song over and over again, but that is tempered by the satisfaction in knowing the joy the students are feeling and the knowledge they are obtaining.