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The Song Room: Arts and Wellbeing

The Song Room

Qualified arts teachers and therapists use arts learning to teach social and emotional skills that support student wellbeing and learning, while fostering inclusive and connected school communities.

  • ACT
  • NSW
  • NT
  • QLD
  • SA
  • Tas
  • Vic
  • WA

Pricing: Free, Paid

Origin: Developed in Australia for Australian schooling contexts

Affiliations: Approved elsewhere: VIC

Product type: Program; Online resources (e.g. videos, games, tools, readings); Student activities; Professional learning; Whole school approach or initiative; Learning modules; Class lesson plans

Contact details

The Song Room
ABN: 68 790 325 760

https://www.songroom.org.au/programs/arts-and-wellbeing-programs/

enquiries@songroom.org.au

Focus areas

  • Positive relationships

  • Belonging and inclusion

  • Self-regulation and engagement

  • Resilience and optimism

  • Self-esteem and body image

Curriculum alignment

  • The Arts

Prospective users

Audience: Whole school universal (Tier 1), Whole class universal (Tier 1), Targeted small group early intervention (Tier 2)

Communities: Diverse cultures or language groups, First Nations, Neurodiversity or disability, Rainbow and LGBTQIA+

Context: School or centre-based, Outside School Hours Care (OSHC)

Main beneficiaries: Early learning, Foundation/Prep, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6

Delivery style: Delivered by program staff

Aims & approach

The Arts and Wellbeing program provides schools with a place-based, evidence-informed, and sequential arts program that focuses on the explicit teaching of social and emotional skills.

The program is led by experienced Song Room Teaching Artists (qualified Arts teachers and therapists) over a 10-week period. Teaching Artists are trained in trauma-informed practice and high impact teaching strategies to explicitly teach social and emotional skills through the Arts.

There are also In-Class Programs and First Nations Programs.

Schools in Victoria can use their Mental Health Menu funding to cover the costs of the program. Any school across Australia (including regional areas) can purchase this product directly from The Song Room. Schools in communities experiencing disadvantage may be eligible for a free Song Room program.

The programs aim to:

  • Use the Arts to explicitly teach the following social and emotional skills according to the CASEL Wellbeing Framework: self -awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills and social awareness.
  • Develop students' self- and social-awareness and management in alignment with the Personal and Social Capability area of the curriculum.
  • Strengthen school belonging for students through whole-school community-building art projects.
  • Embed whole-school arts capacity-building experiences to establish positive, healthy environments for students to flourish.
  • Support diverse, disadvantaged, and vulnerable student cohorts through creative pedagogies tailored to their unique needs (including trauma-informed, strengths-based, and First Nations-led approaches).

Implementation support

  • Access to professional facilitator, instructor or mentor
  • Regular webinars or access to community of professional practice

Evidence

The program aligns with the Berry Street Trauma-Informed Education Model and the CASEL Framework and is recognised as part of the Schools Mental Health Menu in Victoria. The impact of the program is supported by an independent evaluation that found positive outcomes in students across academic performance, wellbeing and engagement. A summary report of the evaluation can be found here.