River Road Newsletter - September 2022

River Road Newsletter!

September 2022

Note from Pat

This month, for many has been challenging time for many students and families affected by the tragic accident in Buxton. I continue to offer support and help where I can, including helping connect with wellbeing services including our wellbeing partners Community Links and Wildflower Holistic Services.

As we start to wrap up Term 3 and prepare improvements towards Term 4, as always, thank you for being with us in Term 3!!

The process of making music and creative art is not always a tangible thing. It can be an ‘in the moment’ thing, that helps ground us and support our self expression regardless of the quality, and without comparison. It’s something that can be for us individually, and do in our own way.

This month, I ask you to make a little music - drum on work desk, sing a song, or pick up an instrument, either way, make some noise and make it yours

Take care,

Pat.

Here’s what’s been going on…

New gear Alert!

Next time your are in, check our our new Yamaha P45 Digital Piano.

This piano is a perfectly graded weighted hammer piano, with Yamaha’s AWM (Advanced Wave Memory) sampling, which uses digital technology to record an instrument’s sound. AWM Stereo Sampling creates a deeper, richer and more spacious sound by using pairs of waveforms captured with two microphones.

This will be supporting our piano students, but also provide all students a very cool piano to jam along with.

Student Works 2022

Reminder our 2022 Student Works album is underway and in production for Term 4.

All Term 4 students will have an opportunity to contribute to the album, including producing music, making a film, and producing artworks.

All works will be presented at an end of year album launch and exhibition of creative works, performances and film screenings!

Check out last years album here: https://riverroad.edu.au/studentworks

Additional Teaching Space on the way!

An additional teaching room is on the way for Term 4, which will aid with sound separation and better management of multiple lessons happening at once.

This will provide us all with three main teaching spaces, with a larger space still available at the for our group classes and workshops.

Mixed Creative Arts coming to Tahmoor Studio!!

This program allows students to explore commonly used art mediums towards developing creative and artistic skills. This includes, drawing, shading to photo editing - all while encouraging self expression, fun, creativity. Every week will have something new for students to explore whilst building on the skills taught in lessons before.

https://riverroad.edu.au/creativearts

School Holiday Camps and Workshops

Our school holiday music camps and film workshops are back on this coming School Holidays!!

Again these are provided for FREE with help from Wollondilly Shire Council Community Grants Program!

All dates and Sign Up Here: https://riverroad.edu.au/campsworkshops

Youth Creative Drop in Sessions

This holidays we have creative drop in sessions, allowing youth to drop into the space and explore various creative outlets including playing an instrument, making a film, or visual art.

Youth can also simply hang out, enjoy some food, watch a movie, or have a chat.

Dates set at this stage:Thursday 29th September, Friday 30th September , Tuesday 4th October

All from 2pm.

More info and sign up here: https://riverroad.edu.au/creativedropins

Paint The Town

River Road is very happy to be partnering with the Southern Tablelands Arts organisation, and local street Artist Jo Quilter on the PAINT THE TOWN project.

This project is a federally funded street art project rolling out over two years with murals across Wollondilly, Wingecarribee, Upper Lachlan and Goulburn Mulwaree.

PAINT THE TOWN will bring nationally established artists to work simultaneously with emerging local talent to create murals that reflect our recovery journey since the 2019 black summer fires.

https://www.southerntablelandsarts.com.au/paint-the-town/

R U OK Day

This year for R U O Day, we were part of Wollondilly R U Ok Day - Tradies Breakfast with Wollondilly Shire Council, Nathaniel Smith MP, Picton Chamber of Commerce.

Its important on these days we take a breath, reflect on our mental health, and check in on people in our lives - but also those you may not know very well, as the simple question of Are you OK, could be the support they needed.

IconiX Salons Fashion show

It was great to be part of Iconix Salons Fundraiser for Community Links Wellbeing, all going towards supporting families in the Wollondilly, especially at this time.

Great to be part of this event providing live sound, with our student Ryan helping out!

Term 4 Lesson Registrations

Term 4 is fast approaching, and will again be rolling over our current schedule of students and teachers into Term 4.

Please let us know if any changes are required by Wednesday 21st September. Additional confirmation emails will be sent out, which will also coincide with student management and payment changes to term 4.

Please email us on services@riverroad.edu.au, or contact Pat on 0408617143 to if you would like to discuss any changes.

Music Group Class Registrations

For those interested in joining our group classes, please see link below.

This includes groups of ages 4-7yrs, 7-12 yrs, 12yrs-17yrs.

Stop Motion Filmmaking

This 7 week program, provides 1hr sessions each week, start 19th October, where kids get to make their own stop motion film!

Filmmaking Program for Youth

This 7 week program, provides 1hr sessions each week, start 19th October, where youth explore the filmmaking process towards a completed film.

Meet our Teachers for Term 4!

We welcome Jimmy to our studio!

Jimmy is an experienced musician, teaching guitar, vocals, bass, piano, but also Banjo and Mandolin!

Some of you have had the pleasure of having Jimmy as a teacher in Term 3, with his main days on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Big welcome to Neill!!

Neill is a familiar face to local drumming and percussion education, and we’re lucky to have someone with his teaching experience in our space.

Neill is in on Mondays, and Fridays!

Finn is in the House!!

Finn teaches guitar, drums, ukulele, Piano, singing, music theory and audio production. Finn also assists us with administrative, scheduling, and general tasks. Finn is an avid songwriter, outstanding performer, and has recently completed a Certificate III in Music Production.

Finn is in on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays

Pat is an experience music and production teacher, having been Head of Composition & Music Production at The Australian Institute of Music. Pat has a Masters Degree in Music with a creative background writing music for Film and TV including Channel 10’s the Project, and various Channel 9 and ABC programs.

Pat is in on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays

Say hello to Therese and Paul!

Therese is classical and contemporary piano teacher and vocal coach. Therese brings a wealth of piano education experience, including being a seasoned school teacher, as well as managing our AMEB examinations.

Therese is in the space on Tuesdays.

Paul brings to our space a wealth of educational experience, being part of the education sector for many years, but also facilitating music groups and teaching guitar and mandolin.

Paul is in the space on Thursdays

Say hello to Filmmaker Noel

Noel provides our filmmaking programs including our Stop Motion Filmmaking program, and our Filmmaking for Youth Program.

New Student Management Procedures and Payments.

This past Term 3, we reviewed how we were managing our students, including scheduling and payments procedures. With also some great feedback from some parents, we identified that our current payment methods and options are a little convoluted.

Changes to how we manage payments ensures a simplified and streamlined process for both students/parents and River Road.

An email with further details on what you need to do will be sent out as Term 4 sessions, with the following payment options available:

Weekly direct debit payment plans
pay now buttons included in each session reminder email, or
upfront payments packages

Policy and Procedure Review

This past term, all Policies were reviewed, with the following policies undergoing significant changes:

All Policies can be found on our Policy page here: https://riverroad.edu.au/policies

We like feedback!

Feedback helps us understand what is happening in River Road, what is working, not working, issues that we may not be aware of, as well as great in hearing what you want or what we should be doing.

Please feel free to use the below link for a feedback form, where you can remain anonymous.

Feedback Form