Down with the kids

When SoundWave’s Sing Up Community bid was accepted, I set about the mammoth task of ‘making it happen’. That is, all except the bit where it said ‘develop and train 60 young singing leaders’. I had no idea where to begin, and little did I know what a life-changing experience it would be!

How to begin?

Having a time limit, my colleagues and I were forced into action, so we enlisted the help of our area’s Extended Services cluster coordinator, four secondary schools and their feeder primaries. Ultimately, I am glad we were thrust into this because it’s been the most tremendous adventure and, to be honest, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into has been the key to our project’s success. You must be open and honest and leave your preconceptions elsewhere. You must be prepared to be challenged, surprised and amazed at all times. And you’re never going to know all the answers!

We started with 24 teenagers who wanted to work with primary children to prepare a performance. They also had to host, devise and deliver those performances and write a new song – which was so catchy that, as an ensemble, they taught it live to more than 1,000 children at The Sage Gateshead’s Big Sing last July. We were daunted by the brief; the young people, obviously, were not! And when we first met the Young Vocal Leaders (YVLs, pronounced ‘evils’), we were pleasantly surprised to find that within a few hours, they were having the time of their lives singing The little green frog!

Getting involved

This is a worthwhile project to try out in any school because there are bound to be young people who want to have a go, and they may not necessarily be the ones that frequent the music rooms at secondary school. How will you find them? Maybe your local secondary school, or youth choir could help?

Once you’ve found some young people (doesn’t matter how many or few), they’ll need opportunities to learn repertoire and develop an understanding of a good session plan and how to deliver it. Then your young people are ready to get the ball rolling towards placement opportunities and performances. Your Extended Services coordinator can help to set up meetings between schools, local clubs and YVLs in order to get together and thrash out the logistics of how it will work. And then, you’re off! See what happens next!

Sarah's top tips

- PARTNERSHIP IS KEY! Talk to other schools and professionals and work with other people. Partnerships are important to ensure diverse experience.

- STAY FLEXIBLE The state of play is always in flux and responsiveness is key.

- BE HONEST, OPEN AND FALLIBLE Be brave and shape the programme as you go. You actually do know how to do this, even if you don’t know it yet!

- COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE! Enough said.

YVLs: Our singing story 

When we started, we were nervous but enthusiastic. We had a vague idea about what we were doing, but the training helped to clarify our purpose and find others to work with. Observing each other also gave us ideas for different approaches.

Embarking on the Silver Arts Award helped structure the process, giving us a clear goal. The highlight of the project was our event at the Carnegie Theatre in Workington. Leading 300 children singing songs we’d chosen was a lot of responsibility and afterwards, we felt proud that we’d achieved so much.

How did we get there?

- We met with primary teachers who helped us find children to work with. 

- We observed professionals working with children, learning new repertoire and researching our own songs, using the Song Bank for help.

- We developed our own techniques and activities. We had help to troubleshoot problems and make plans. 

- Control! We learned how to manage our class and practised our leading skills on one another. After a few rehearsals, we led our groups in performances with small audiences. Less pressure!

- We’re now working towards a Gold Arts Award and have begun Special Educational Needs (SEN) work in our own school. We have started music therapy-style activities and are continuing to develop our leading skills by running a lunchtime singing group. 

This project has given us valuable and transferable experience and skills. Terri is now interested in becoming a secondary teacher. Jodie is more aware of the real world of work and the effort, preparation and organisation needed to succeed. Ellie is finding her current placement relevant to a career in social work where she’ll include techniques from our music therapy sessions.

We’d like to thank everyone involved, especially our mentor Sarah Wall. Many thanks too to Dave Camlin, Yvonne Reay-Bennett at school, our placement teachers, Richard Strivens, Hannah Reid and Ems Jesse (the vocal leaders we worked with), and Sing Up for providing this opportunity – it‘s been awesome! 

Terri Jodie Ellie

Stainburn School and Science College

Terri, Jodie and Ellie’s Dos and Don’ts for working with YVLs

- Have fun with us!

- Don’t be like a teacher, but give us clear boundaries.

- Don’t demand too much from us.

- Let us have our own independence and responsibilities.

- Do work closely with us as we work with the children, and keep communicating with us. We know we’ll get it wrong sometimes, but so will you! And that’s OK. If we’re on an equal footing, then we’ll have a better time and be able to talk to one another.

Take note

Sing Up Cumbria was one of the first Sing Up Communities funded by Youth Music in 2007. It was run by SoundWave, a Youth Music Action Zone. Visit www.soundwave.org.uk and www.youthmusic.org.uk.

For more information about Sing Up Communities and our other funded programmes visit www.singup.org/about.