Should we start a campaign to bring back singing in school assemblies?

[PaulaYatesBiggestFan]

I LOVE hymn singing and find it very uplifting on the rare occasions i get to do it!

Would it benefit children to bring it back...?

following on from 'The Choir' i feel inspired

Teachers is this possible or just not worth thinking about?

here we go chaps, the music manifesto

That's Fab

What can I do as a childminder to encourage singing

I regularily sing for the children & depending upon the song they join in - but sometimes they just listen, should I try to encourage them to join in or is listening a valuable skill?

I would say that both things are very important.

I find that many of the children I teach don't have well developed listening skills.

I used to play my form group spoken word tapes in form tutor time, and many of them couldn't follow the story (Things like the Demon Headmaster).

I always sang with my own kids, and they sing along in the car etc, as well as having singing lessons in class in school. Cathedral choir have tipped me the wink that dd would get in, but we can't commit the time as a family

thanks for link MB

KAtyMAc I would heartily reccomend the seried of books by Lucinda Geoghan ( I attended one her workshops at Singposium) called Singing Games and Rhymes for Tiny Tots/Pre-Schoolers etc. I think they are published by the National Youth Choir of Scotland but google Lucinda and you should find them.

Also I use the Voiceworks books quite a bit, there are different books for different age ranges there too.

We tend to use a mix of nursery rhymes & songs, my memories of 70's school sung songs & pop songs

We do a great line in carols & some jewish songs (tho' we struggle with Diwali & other cultures)

ATM their favourite is the old lady who swallowed the fly & they stare transfixed

We also put elephant and lions into Old Macdonalds farm & try & do actions as well

I will have a google

Young Voiceworks by Jo McNally is good. (dh knows Jo and she is great)

Fishy Music is very popular in Scotland for modern assembly and all-purpose songs. Guy calld Stephen (or Simon?) Fischbacher, I think. Bound to have website.

But

• primaries do sing, HUGE variety of interesting resources
• music can be studied in high school and must surely include singing
• extra curricular choir activities common
• logistically not possible to gather everyone for a sing-a-long in high school *I do not agree with high school pupils sitting on hard floors in assemblies as they are TOO BIG and it is bloody uncomfortable

surely schools gather for assemblies albeit under new annoying names

For most large secondary schools it is almost impossible to get the whole school together, and the only place that we can do this is the indoor playing area, which has no chairs.

The only way we can get the upper school seated on chairs is to remove them from classrooms.

It would be a massive waste of resources to have a hall and chairs set asside for just school assembly.

We have 1300 kids in the school, even getting them in and out is a logistical nightmare

i think most secondary schools have 1 big year assembly each day. so mon might be year 7, tuesday might be year 8 etc. or at our school we used to have it in houses.

Could the high school age children not manage to stand up for 10-15 minutes?

I find it hard (arthritis/Prolapse/ME) but I can normally manage that long

Adults wouldn't like to have to stand up with hundreds and hundreds of other people in a hall, cheek by jowl for 15 minutes (and I presume that time starts only when everyone has eventually filed into the hall). I really don't think we should make our young people do that.

I know that might be considered soft, but I firmly believe it. An uncomfortable audience is not conducive to enthusiastic singing, if that's the aim.

ds's school sing in assembly...not necessarily hymns but they do a fair bit.
At school (a Catholic primary) we sang every day from a giant hymn sheet on the wall - loved it. We went to Mass at school each week and sang there too, as well as doing lots of music festivals...so yes, I think it'd be brilliant !