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

Starting next fall, more than 2,100 Grade 6 students will learn instruments, while older students will continue specialized music. Damian Smith has more.

Heading into the 2026-27 school year, Regina Public Schools will put more focus on musical education by opening a dedicated specialized music centre.

Through $1.4 million in funding, approximately 2,100 Grade 6 students will be required to play an instrument. If students are eager to continue their music education, MusicCentre@Dieppe will the new hub for students from Grade 7-8. The high school curriculum will remain the same.

“It’s about getting an instrument in every student’s hand so they all can be equal and try it out and all be excited at the same moments in time with their classmates,” said Adam Hicks, the chairperson of Regina Public Schools. “Nobody’s being excluded, it is it is a win-win-win across our system.”

Grade 6 students will be required to play an instrumental music, while grade students in Grade 7-8 will focus on “continued specialized music,” according to the school division.

The continued specialized music will include regular weekly instructions and full band opportunities.

Currently, there are 1,700 students registered in the elementary band model. The school division wants Grade 6 to be a key year for students to see if they enjoy the class.

According to Mark Haarmann, director of education and CEO of Regina Public Schools, the board operates at a five-year model to analyze how well a subject can be organized.

“Some students are going to try it for a whole host of reasons,” he said. “Leaving their school for half a day every week may not be for them. But what I think we’re going to do is eliminate those kids who chose Grade 6 band because their friends chose it, because their parents said, ‘You need to try it.’”

Since 2022, only 41 per cent of Grade 6 students participated in the band program. That number dropped to 25 per cent in Grade 7 and 17 per cent in Grade 8.

The former Dieppe School originally opened in 1968 for classes from kindergarten to Grade 6, but closed in June 2012 because of “unsustainably low enrolment,” according to the school division.

In the meantime, the available space has been used as a sports training facility for Martin Academy. The building has also been used with sports groups, and as a polling station.

Before the music centre opens in fall of 2026, facility infrastructure such as maintenance for washrooms and the music room will be done.

While Grade 6 students will play music in their home schools, Grade 7 and 8 students will be transported by bus to play at MusicCentre@Dieppe.

“Students will decide they want to pursue excellence, they want to pursue their passion, and really having the opportunity to be in a place with all the music teachers, the instruments are kept here, there will be cleaning equipment, instead of what I think is right now a little bit of a willy nilly arrangement,” Haarman said.

In the past, students would play twice a week, with many band classes forced to play in boot rooms, gyms, hallways, or even kitchens. With the new program, students will spend one half day on site, which will be the same amount of time of music practice time as before.

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According to the school division, it will free up time for schoolteachers to organize timetables and teach more efficiently, so that students don’t have to miss “core subjects” such as numeracy and literacy.

“Right now, the teacher can’t plan the music. The classroom teacher cannot predict when she’ll be pulled out for band right now,” Hicks said. “My daughter is constantly missing math instruction on critical classroom instruction curriculum; my daughter is frustrated because she loves school and she hates missing new instruction.”

Haarmann reiterated that change is important not only to inspire future musicians, but free up space for non-music teachers.

“I think the reaction has been very much mixed. I think they’re [band teachers] are excited by the opportunities that are afraid of change because change is always something that causes fear,” Haarmann said.

“We have to bring forward the voice of our classroom teachers, who are in charge of delivering numeracy and literacy. They found the current model very disruptive in terms of students being pulled out [of class].”