Concerns raised over upcoming changes to Regina’s music program

Music classes will change in 2026-27, with new specialized requirements, as teachers raise concerns over travel and consistency. Damian Smith reports.

A few weeks after Regina Public Schools announced changes towards the music program for students in Grade 6 to Grade 8, some music teachers are raising concerns.

“So, there’s some flaws with the current model, but the new model creates even more issues,” said Hannah Wildman, a private music instructor.

This September, students from Grade 6 will be introduced to a new mandatory instrument, and those who wish to pursue music further in Grade 7 and Grade 8 will travel to Dieppe School for one half day per week.

Private music instructor Hannah Wildman said the travel time is a concern.

“Some schools that only have 10 minutes of travel time for full band, those same schools having to go all the way to Dieppe could have 30 to 45 minutes of travel time, so you’re tripling to quadrupling the amount of travel time students have to access full band,” she said.

• Regina Public Schools to open dedicated music centre in former Dieppe School

In a response to CTV News, the school division says they “have neighbourhoods where kids don’t have access to band under the current model” and that “the new program removes barriers and gives every student the same opportunity to explore music.”

Some musical leaders in Regina are questioning the gap between weekly music sessions.

“It seems like a strange move when we generally realize that kids learn in a better way when the days are broken up and in different units of activity,” said Simon Fryer, a cellist with the Regina Symphony Orchestra. “We don’t do the whole day in math, and then a whole day in French, we break them up throughout the course of the day because we know that kids learn better that way.”

“We also need to make sure that they have chances to practice as an ensemble in schools, because they can’t do that at home,” Wildman said. “Even better would be even shorter amounts every day, say half an hour to 45 minutes of programming for a full band experience would really help to enrich the program overall.”

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The school division says that Grade 7 and 8 students will receive the same weekly instruction time, with additional hours as the new program includes more instruction in June and September.

“There would not be a Grade 6 program, which would mean students would be introduced to band in its full sense in Grade 7 or 8, which compared to all of the other school divisions in the region that offer band programs, puts the Regina Public students behind all of the other students in the province,” said Suzanne Gorman, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Band Association.

For the school division, the goal of the new program is to increase music participation.

Since 2022, 41 percent of Grade 6 students took part in music. That number dropped to 25 per cent in Grade 7 and 17 per cent in Grade 8.