February 27, 2013

When a School is Working Well

When a school is working well, there is a natural creativity and growth happening that seems to transcend all the programs and plans and organised activities in place.

I experienced this last year when I happened to hear that the Grade 7 Outs (as they are known, being in the Time Out Year) so loved the tractor in the playground that they had written a song about it to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon”.

One of the School’s past students who is studying music at QUT talked to his lecturers and was able to have the whole grade visit QUT and record them performing the song.

The trip was organised on one of the Time Out Wednesday excursions. The recording went fabulously well with the children having the experience of working in a music studio and seeing how music is mixed and made.

I couldn’t resist putting the song together with a few photos of the experience (taken indoors on a phone so forgive the quality) plus some photos of the tractor and the Time Outers on another excursion. You can watch it below.