There was shrieking, booming, crashing drums and smiles everywhere.
And the musicians at the front of the classroom, classically-trained members of one of the country's finest orchestras were busting out Beethoven, Twinkle Twinkle and, a crowd pleaser, the theme from Peppa Pig.
And Ricky Stuart, for one, was more chilled out than he'd been all week.
The much put-upon Raiders coach took time out of his busy schedule to watch a roomful of children at Malkara School laugh, clap and move to the music.
It's part of the Ricky Stuart Foundation's partnership with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, to help autistic and neurodivergent children experience live music.
On Thursday, he officially launched the Ricky Stuart Music Makers program, to expand the orchestra's Diverse Abilities initiative into specialist schools across Canberra over three years.
But first, he was content to just sit back and watch the chaos.
"I love this - it's been the most relaxing part of my week," he said, as a child crawled over him and laughed hysterically.
His own daughter, Emma, is autistic, and he knows first hand what it's like to see the effect music can have on a child who might otherwise be difficult to reach.
"It's quite personal, because we can see what these programs can give to the individual," he said.
"I just know that she's happy, when she's laughing, we're all laughing."
Emma is now 29, and Stuart said when she was a child, a diagnosis of autism was rare; instead, she was "developmentally delayed".
"She wasn't officially diagnosed until she was 11 or 12," he said.
Nowadays, Emma lives in sheltered accommodation with a housemate, and lives much of her life via an iPad.
"A lot of it is music with different types of themes and cartoons and videos we send her," he said.
"Music plays a part in everybody's life, and it's in all facets of your life.
"For us, it might be just normal, but it's not for our children that are living with a disadvantage.
"It's lovely to have this partnership where we can just help change the day, not the lives of a child. Just the day."
Bassoon player Kristen Sutcliffe said the times playing for children at specialist schools were "the most fun concerts that we ever do".
"We can't always see obviously what it's doing for the kid. It might be that kid who is over in the corner, or they might even be outside, and they seem like they're not listening. And then the teachers actually feed back to us afterwards, saying 'That was such an impactful moment'.
"You just can't take anything on face value, and that's why you need to offer it to make sure that everyone's getting that opportunity."
But on this Thursday afternoon, it was clear that much fun was being had.
CSO community and education manager Donna Parkes said it was hard to articulate in words the effect music could have on children.
"It's such a powerful connector, and we find especially with these young non-verbal students," she said.
"It's a way to connect and communicate, and music just hits us ... We see the change in mood, in emotion when we play certain music."
