Matt Pankhurst | Head of Music Faculty
St Patrick's College Ballarat

Matthew Pankhurst Biography Matthew is a highly experienced musician and educator. He holds a Bachelor of Music and a Graduate Diplomas in Performance and Education from the Sydney Conservatorium and Australian Catholic Univeristy. Matthew has performed with many of Australia’s professional orchestras. He has won eleven Australian solo championships and won the Victorian Champion of Champion twice. He competed at a number of international solo competitions. Matthew is taking up the position of Head of Music Faculty at St Patrick’s College Ballarat in 2024 after spending the last six years establishing the music program at Marist College Bendigo from the ground up. Matthew was previously the music coordinator at Bendigo Senior Secondary College. Throughout his career Matthew has had a passion for using technology in Music Education. He was an earlier adopter of notation and recording software. He is a Tuba Player, Conductor and a passionate Composer, he has produced a mix of digital, acoustic and hybrid works for a variety of ensembles. His students' compositions have been regularly selected for Top Class Sound and Top Acts in the VCAA Season of Excellence festival.

Appearances:

Day 1 @ 12:45

Authentic curriculum integration – exploring ‘creative serendipity’

In this presentation, we explore the concept of “creative serendipity” through the integration of Digital Technologies and Performing Arts (Music) learning domains into valuable cross-curricular learning experiences. Using semester-based projects from Years 5 & 6 as working examples. The presentation showcases two projects, “Battle of the bands”, and “Retro-Gamer”, from planning, through resourcing, implementation, and the culminating community events.

Take-away key points:

The richness of combining learning domains
The “Batte of the bands” case study project, our first iteration of explicit integration, well not quite, but back to our PBL roots post-COVID
The “Retro-Gamer” case study project, taking what worked well, and creating something bigger!
The value of the Maker’s Space as a form of celebrating creativity
What happens when creative skills spontaneously appear out of expected context? Creative serendipity!

Take-away resources:

Planning overview documentation
Access to the “Retro-Gamer” Google Site, including workshops, resources, worksheets, and assessment checkpoints
List of hardware and software used for showcase projects
Integrated curriculum map (Victorian Curriculum Level 5-6) for Digital Technologies and Performing Arts (Music)

Matt Pankhurst, Head of Music Faculty, St Patrick's College Ballarat

Jason van Domburgh, Educator & Digital Technologies Facilitator, Marist College Bendigo