Canberra Girls Grammar School has decided to pull out of a joint music program with Canberra Grammar in light of the exclusive boys' school's decision to become co-educational.
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In a letter to the school community, principal Anne Coutts said the joint venture was "unsustainable" and her school would sever its musical ties with Canberra Grammar School at the end of the year.
Canberra Girls Grammar plans to expand its own music program to potentially include more staff, more interstate and overseas tours and new partnerships with visiting musicians and composers.
Ms Coutts said the school's main concern was an influx of musical female students joining Canberra Grammar from next year.
"Our main concern is going to be the different school; if they're going to change what they're doing, we have to reassess what we're doing," Ms Coutts said
"The boys school is planning to admit its own girl students who will be singing or playing an instrument. We do not want our girls to miss out on any opportunities, so we intend to start to build our sustainable future now.
"We have the financial resources to appoint additional music staff should that be needed and to fully equip the bands and orchestras with specialist instruments."
Ms Coutts said her students made up 64 per cent of the existing joint music program, while 77 per cent of orchestral students were female.
She said the move also addressed concerns from parents worried about their daughters arriving late to class.
"The timings of the school days and the pressures of the school year differ at the two schools," she said.
"Our girls often arrive late to school after early morning rehearsals at the boys' school … We are constrained when scheduling concerts because of the differing demands of the curriculum throughout the year due to the HSC."
Ms Coutts has called on parents to participate in a focus group to discuss changes to the school's musical offering.
The school will also canvass the views of students.
Although the school had begun brainstorming ideas – such as composer or musician-in residence programs and choir and string tours of Europe – Ms Coutts said nothing would be finalised until the voices of parents and students were heard.
"We're setting up this focus group so we can hear from the parents and they can tell us what they'd like to see and what they've valued in the past," she said.
"I'm very, very interested to hear our parents' views … and our students' views.
"Being free to make our own plans is a great thing. We can time things in the right way for our own students
"It's quite an exciting time. It's something we're really looking forward to."
Canberra Grammar School principal Justin Garrick responded to the announcement in his own newsletter.
He said the music program had been "under consideration for some time because of the difficulties inherent in running a complex offering between two schools with different priorities and structures".
"With a change, we now have an opportunity to take fresh approaches that we believe will invigorate our musical life," he said.
Mr Garrick said the change would enable his school to focus on its own musical programs, extend the musical curriculum, host more performances on site, and better align music with the school's drama program.
He said the school would also expand its involvement with Canberra Youth Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra and Musica Viva, and looked forward to hosting the Australian Combined Schools Music Festival in 2017.
Mr Garrick said he hoped Canberra Grammar and Canberra Girls Grammar would collaborate on future activities.
