Winning singing – The winning team of music students from Casey Grammar School who won a state

MUSIC students from Casey Grammar School have used their talents to sing a winning story.
A group of Year 6 and Year 7 students won the state story-singing final at the Wakakirri National Story Festival in Melbourne on 12 September.
The students were required to perform and write their own song-story, which had to have a beginning, middle and an end.
They used their voices, a mime artist and an orchestra of xylophones to tell their story at the Moonee Ponds Clock Tower Theatre in Melbourne.
The students, guided by junior school music teacher Ree Liddell, told a story about climate change, drought and how people take resources for granted.
The students chose the name of their song from a line in a Joni Mitchell song, You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone.
“Students told a simple and clear story about a boy named Bobby who always complains about everything, no matter how much he has,” Ms Liddell said.
Bobby, in the story, refused to listen to his grandfather’s advice that he has to learn to see the glass half full.
“Refusing to listen to his grandfather’s advice Bobby wakes up one day and everything he complains about disappears.
“Soon he is totally alone. It is only then that Bobby begins to understand what he did have and the wisdom of his grandfather’s advice.”
Ms Liddell said the students believed the entire story was a metaphor for the way people relate to the planet.
“They saw us all as potential Bobbys in the way we take our planet’s resources for granted and always have the expectation of more. We have the perception that the earth’s resources will go on forever.”