Ravenswood Heights students send important message

Students and members of the school community packed into the school gym to hear the choir perform a song they wrote themselves.

Entitled It’s Never Ok, the original songs outlines the impact of family violence on households and was composed as part of a Colony 47 project.

Helping the students put together the music was Launceston independent musician Rav Thomas, who has toured with the likes of Chris Isaak, Jimmy Barnes, Toni Childs, Ian Moss and Kate Cebrano. 

The three-time ARIA number one singer said assisting the children was a unique experience.

“When I was originally approached to do it, I thought it was different to anything I have ever done,” he said.

“The subject matter is fairly dark, so to be able to put that into a pop song is not something that comes naturally.

“In our approach, we decided we wanted to empower the kids and also the community by writing a song that gets the conversation happening.”

Thomas even enlisted the help of soap star friend Andrew Morley to contribute to the project.

After starting out on Home and Away, Morley is now lighting up screens on Neighbours.

Raised on a country farm in Victoria, the 27-year-old has not let his high profile stop him from giving back to the community, volunteering as a fire fighter for the past 12 years.

He and Thomas spent Friday afternoon conducting workshops with students from Ravenswood Heights Primary School ahead of the performance in the gym

He said he didn’t take much convincing to get involved the cause.

“I’d never been down to Tasmania before, so I was very happy when Rav asked me to be a part of this,” he said.

“As someone who has seen and also been involved with certain domestic violence issues in the past, I was very grateful to be able to work with the kids today and see how much energy they bring to this.”

Anyone who was not at the concert on Friday will still have the opportunity to hear the song, with a recorded version set to be released soon.