To hate modern school assembly songs?

[MintyChapstick]

Following on from a recent thread about those bloody awful modern class photos.

When I was growing up in the 90's we used to sing religious based songs like All Things Bright and Beautiful and Who Put the Colours in the Rainbow?Now they sing bloody weird shit about school rules, one about the lunchtime queaue. A few even have raps in them! They are hideous and to be quite frank, mostly drivel. For some reason I really pine for the songs I sang as a child.

It's nothing to do with school assemblies becoming more secular either, because they have to have collective worship as part of the curriculum and still say the Lords Prayer, hear Bible stories so I don't understand why they can't sing proper old songs?

Do they still sing that awful thing that goes something like "Love is something that you give it away, you end up having more"? It really used to make me cringe, particularly given that these people were supposed to be teaching my children English.

I got half way down the first page and read this.... I think schools should email parents before events with a link to the music and words so they can practise beforehand

Seriously?

I love the old school hymns and not keen on the new songs BUT I would rather not attend than have a song sheet forced upon me before arrival.

I understand the religious indoctrination argument (although I went to a CofE school and we only sung hymns at end of term assembly!) but also agree with natasha about Christmas carols. Because Christmas is ultimately a religious festival, with al sorts of traditions, carols being one of them (alongside less religious traditions). It's nice, it's part of our culture. It seems a shame to lose that. I was quite shocked, when volunteering in a nursing home, to discover that the (English) staff had not heard of many very famous carols before.

I wouldn't want then chanting, but singing would be fine - singing is one of the best and easiest ways for children to become interested in music.

Hymns are good because they often have fairly short verses that are repeated. You learn verse/chorus, you get to hear cadences, major and minor keys, maybe call and response. If you have hymn books with music as well as words even small children can follow the 'blobs' up and down.

Lack of exposure to 'simple' music (just singing and a piano) nowadays is quite sad. Everything has to have drums/guitars/autotune.

Boojum Cauliflowers fluffy

Oooh! Will have that in my head all day now!

Many a chooooon out of this baby #oilinmylamp

Yes! The photo in the front must be from the 70's as, even to my 80's child eyes, they were some very dated haircuts on those children!

Yes and I loved Autumn Days too, though I think we only sang two verses of it. I loved all the seasonal stuff you used to do in school.

I hated Kum-by-yah, for being so dreary.

I am Muslim and I have no problem with my child singing hymms. I think they're a an important part of UK history and I don't have a problem with most of them from a theological perspective either.

In dd's school they included a Beatles song in the school concert. The sight of 200 sweet little boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 11 innocently (or, in some cases, not so innocently) belting out the words "I get high with a little help from my friends" was ... interesting.

But at least it was less uncomfortable than hearing the same children give a rendering of "Thine Empire shall be strong....Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set" (this was on the day of the outbreak of the Iraqi war and the action involved waving a British flag to the music).

'Would parents be happy for their children to have to chant muslim songs every morning?'

When I was at school, we were taught a long list of hymns, also the Soviet anthem and the Star-Spangled Banner and The East is Red and (if I remember correctly) the Israeli national anthem and God Save the Queen , as well as our own national anthem and a Buddhist song. I always thought the Soviet anthem had rather a catchy tune. Didn't turn me into a communist though.

I wouldn't have minded Land of Hope and Glory either, except that it was so obviously political in that particular context.

sorry, wrong emoticon in my first post. meant or perhaps even , not

Sing hosanna is my favourite. When I was at school, we sang traditional hymns as well as songs by The Beatles and songs such as Molly Malone which I still love now and it takes me back to the school hall!

goodness knows what the DC sings at school now. All I know is that it will be mimed.

Cat-muffin - Thanks for jet planes link. She doesn't sound like a woman who'd admit it was all about the rhyme! They don't just refuel on Autumn days though😉

One school I taught at had an exchange of teachers with a South African school and hearing our children belt out the SA national anthem to welcome them was awesome and spine tingling.

When lamps are lighted in the town
The boats sail out to sea,
The fishers watch as night come down,
They work for you and me.

Does anyone else remember this one? Well loved in SE London when I started teaching.

We also used this book when I was in primary school

My dds sing pop songs that the children pick - not impressed that they have been singing '7 years' as I don't think they lyrics are appropriate. But I am one of 'those' parents.

SouperSal

^When lamps are lighted in the town
The boats sail out to sea,
The fishers watch as night come down,
They work for you and me^

Ooh yes big when I was little! But we were a primary school in a small coastal town where a good proportion of the dads (gender equality hasn't infiltrated the South West yet) were out fishing for a living when we were singing that.

Is that another Come and Praise classic? I'm feeling the need to find a copy on eBay

HowBadIsThisPlease do you seriously believe that the state needs to indoctrinate children into its religion of choice so that they know where to go if they need comfort when they're older?!

Not read the whole thread but our local primary uses Fischy Music. It's brilliant. I am not a Christian, and although it's a christian based programme, there are no religious references.
It's all about respect, celebrating differences and treating others well.

I teach in a church school and am in charge of the singing in assembly. We sing a mixture. We pick the better of the modern songs - ones that are still remotely linked to worship, PSHE themes and friendship. The children do love them.

The rest are chosen (still) from Come and Praise, Junior Praise, with Cheerful voice, everyone's singing Lord, someone's singing Lord and a few more.

I teach When a knight, Shine Jesus shine, One more step, I the Lord of Sea and sky, Give me oil (can play that one with my eyes closed after 19 years!) and lots more mentioned on this thread.

I don't like the 'Love is something if you give it away,' but the other music lady at school who does choose some songs too does like that one and does it sometimes.

We use this site for the days when there's no pianist available for assembly (if I'm on a course etc).

www.worshipworkshop.org.uk/songs-and-hymns/

once, I think it's a generation thing not a class thing. I teach in a school in an affluent area and the first Christmas carol service, was surprised how few of the famous carols the girls knew (apart from the girls who sing in the choir). A lot of them play instruments but the tradition of public singing does seem to be dying out along with the Anglicanism that supported it.

They are also playing music to a lower standard, at least measured in grades. Improvisation is much better, however and more styles of music are accepted.

I am an atheist but good music is good music in my opinion and I like the words and imagery.

CharleyDavidson do you work in a faith school?

Yes, Beeziekn33ze, we used to sing that one. Also one that started:

Remember all the people
Who live in far-off lands,
In strange and sultry forests
Or roam the desert sands.

Or till the endless pastures
Until the morning rains,
Where children wade in rice-fields
Or watch the camel-trains.

We sang that in the infants, and I had some very strange pictures in my head of children wading knee-deep in Uncle Sam's, and waving to British Rail trains full of camels. Infants was also the time for When A Knight Won His Spurs, before progressing to the more grown-up junior hymn-book with things like Jerusalem and I Vow to Thee My Country. Along with national anthems from loads of countries - I loved the ones from Israel and the Soviet Union.

My DDs sang some of the songs mentioned up-thread like Cauliflowers Fluffy. They're now mid-20s and they hardly remember them at all, whereas I can still sing lots of the songs we sang, including ones I must have stopped singing regularly in assembly at the age of 7.

OP shit songs I agree.
"All things Bright and Beautiful " gets my goat.
If there was a god ( which there isn't) he also has to take responsibility for Ebola,Tape worms and malaria.
I don't hear them mentioned in the song.