About - The Goodtime Foundation

About Us

The Goodtime Foundation Story

Our Story

Goodtime Music Academy is the brain-child of Jonny Wilson. After completing a Bachelor of Music, he had a strong vision to build a unique music school that focused on using music as the pathway for youth development in order to help young people reach their full potential.

Jonny launched Goodtime Music Academy with just 30 students in 2009 and it is now Wellington’s largest music school. The Academy impacts tens of thousands of young people every year, through lessons, music bus, concerts and school shows and has become a fixture of the Hutt Valley. But Jonny wanted to do more to help those who could not afford music lessons in our community, after all ‘life is better with music’. This is why Goodtime Foundation was born!

Goodtime Foundation is the charitable arm of Goodtime Music Academy. In 2017 we piloted our Scholarship programme where we travelled in a bus to three low decile schools in the Hutt Valley region and picked up 15 primary aged kids who joined us each Friday, at Goodtime Music Academy, through the school term to learn how to play a variety of musical instruments and be encouraged to be the best that they can be.

We now work with up to 100 tamariki, rangatahi and the wider community, to provide a diverse range of significant musical opportunities, all while forming meaningful mentoring relationships. We remove the transport and cost barrier making music accessible to those who can’t afford it.

There is a real need in our communities to provide programmes to help our tamariki engage in positive outcomes for themselves & their communities. We believe we provide a service which helps to give them a positive focus, keeping them out of trouble, and guides them to make good choices for their lives.

Students

Our students get the chance to learn to play an instrument of their choice out of Ukulele, Guitar, Keyboard, Drums or Vocals. They can then showcase what they have learnt in end of term concerts, other shows in the community like Hutt’s Got Talent and in their own school and church bands.

Music Mentors

Our Music Mentors are passionate teens who are keen to share and develop their own character, musical and leadership skills while forming mentoring relationships with their students. They volunteer their time for around 3 hours each week and have a huge positive impact on our students lives. We teach them to ultimately be able to teach others which will help towards them supporting themselves. Our Music Mentors ROCK!!

Today

In term 2, week 5, we welcomed 21 new students from our a new Foundation school, Avalon Intermediate. These students have adapted really well, joining us on the programme and are having a blast! Seeing the bonds form with students from all walks of life has been really awesome!

This term we also introduced ‘Our Values’ sticker charts. This is showcased on the Foundation wall at Goodtime where we can celebrate our students successes on learning and displaying our ten values.

Going Forward

Due to the success and growth of this programme in term 3 2019 we are aiming at increasing the size of our programme and having 70 tamariki and between 20-30 rangatahi coming through our doors but we can’t do it without help from individuals, companies and funders alike so be sure to check out how you can be a part of supporting the Scholarship Programme.

Our Mission

To make music lessons and mentoring accessible to as many disadvantaged children/tamariki and young people/rangatahi as possible.

Our Values

These values were decided upon and their meanings created by our Music Mentors. They are instilled into our youth every time they come to our programme and lived out in the lives of the team and Music Mentors. Our students can earn “value badges” each time they memorise a value. But it’s more than just saying the words, it’s living it out at home, school, work and play, ultimately making a difference in our families and community.