Singing is back in fashion in primary schools across England and Wales. Few people would dispute the value of children singing together in school, and Sing Up, the Music Manifesto singing program, has played a significant role in making singing fun.
It was launched in 2007 with the aim of making every primary school in the two countries “a singing school” by 2011. Sing Up’s program has already reached 85 percent of primary schools. For some schools, singing is simply a nice thing to do, a bolt-on to the curriculum. Others, however, are trying to take a cross-curricular approach and make singing more central to school life, as a growing body of evidence suggests that singing can aid children’s sense of achievement, improve their behavior and enhance their sense of well-being and belonging. What is the future of singing and can more schools be convinced that it represents part of the key to whole-school improvement?
These questions were explored at a recent round-table discussion convened by Education Guardian in collaboration with Sing Up. Contributions to the discussion were recorded without attribution, in order to encourage uninhibited debate. Key topics addressed were: What does a singing school look like? What is it that makes singing special in terms of promoting children’s learning and development and where is the evidence for this? What can be done to help the many non-specialist teachers who lack confidence in music and singing?
The round table heard first from several participants with personal experience of the Sing Up program in school.
“It’s hard to quantify ... but since the introduction of Sing Up, the atmosphere in school has changed. Children’s imagination has been inspired and they have become more resilient, more willing to have a go at things. Children’s confidence has improved, and so has behavior.”
In another school, it has taken 10 years to establish singing, but singing is now, with the help of Sing Up, “a pivotal part of the curriculum,” leading to many opportunities to sing with other schools and generally “boosting children’s self-esteem.”
One school introduced singing in the hope of raising standards by encouraging children to work together and building confidence, and now has results above the national average.
“I love the inclusive side of music — every single person can sing. Sport is good, but not everyone likes it.”
Participants said that the strengths of Sing Up were that it was a voluntary program and “not a didactic one,” encouraging schools to incorporate singing in ways that best suited them — ranging from choirs, singing with other schools and weekly whole-school singing, to singing as part of other subject lessons and singing while tidying up or lining up.
Successful singing schools, one participant said, “find that place for their workforce where quality and passion come together” and depend on “good vocal leadership.”
The importance of schools getting better at singing was emphasized: “It’s not enough just to put singing into a school ... it’s when children are being stretched to sing well that you start to get the real rewards.”
Pinpointing the evidence for why singing is good for schools proved more difficult.
“It’s really important to focus on what makes the special difference in music and singing,” said one participant. “Is it the impact on other areas of learning? Is it that it creates a sense of belonging? Of cultural identity? Of community? Or is it a combination of all these things? It would be good to have a systematic way of codifying that, so it can be simply explained and repeated.”
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