Daily Singing is the Rhythm of Life

Find out how to adapt the tactics of Steiner Schools into your school day

In 2005 two colleagues and I were commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families ( DCSF) to investigate the 23 English Steiner Schools. The DCSF was anxious to know what the possibilities might be for mutual learning and the sharing of best practice between the Steiner Schools and the maintained schools.

Our report highlighted many ways in which the two systems might learn from each other. One of the more significant findings was what state schools might learn about the daily dose of singing that has been part of the Steiner way of life for decades. There is no doubt that daily singing works as part of a well-established and integrated approach to the curriculum.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STEINER SCHOOLS

Steiner Schools are part of a worldwide movement founded in 1919 by the Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. Steiner sought to devise an education system in which boys and girls from the richest to the poorest social classes would work together, a radical idea for the time. The aim was a world better than that which had just been devastated by the Great War.

There are now something like 870 Steiner Schools worldwide, and they continue to be attractive to parents such as those who are in sympathy with the schools' outright opposition to SATs, which are not undertaken.

You may have heard that the schools follow a unique spiritual tradition. That is true. It is known as anthroposophy and it deeply informs the work of the teachers and their views on how children learn and develop, though it is not taught to the children themselves. This view of child development strongly emphasises a direct 'human' contact with the teacher, and has relatively little time for mechanistic devices such as ICT.

DEVELOPING AN ORAL TRADITION

The oral tradition in Steiner Schools is very strong. It is manifest in daily recitations of verse, choral speaking or acting plays out in French, German or English from the age of eight upwards. Though Science, Modern Foreign Languages and a full curriculum is taught, it is believed that children of primary age learn mainly through their artistic senses and teachers are trained to employ the arts in their pedagogy. Formal reading and particularly formal writing does not begin in the Steiner Schools until two or so years later than in the National Curriculum and the Steiner movement has been a vocal opponent of what it perceives as too early a start for these activities.

SINGING AS THE KEYSTONE

Music and singing, of course, are key parts of this oral tradition, and no more so than during the years a child will spend with the same class teacher between the ages of seven or eight and 14. You may (depending on how much you like your present class!) balk at this idea, but it's a fundamental part of Steiner education. The class teacher does not have the children all day though, as there is subject teaching too from age eight.

What is unique to Steiner Schools is the two hour 'main lesson' that is taken by the class teacher at the beginning of each day. This, in turn, is informed by another important Steiner principle: that of rhythm. Children do not follow the same activity for two hours. They will alternate between quiet and noisy, still and moving, 'breathing in' and 'breathing out', all according to what are perceived as the rhythms of childhood.

A short spell of singing can be, and usually is, a big 'breathing out'. Closely related would be the learning of multiplication tables to often quite complex rhythmic chanting and movement. Just try getting a good
stamp-clap-clap rhythm going with the children and adding a multiplication table to it. Then, add some bean-bag throwing.

These rhythmic interruptions of pure cerebral activity (think of them as 'brain breaks' if you like) play a major part in the success of the Steiner Schools. And they are successful - we found little evidence that children are disadvantaged by the later start to formal writing and plenty of evidence of bright, alert children who still enjoy learning (and writing) at age 16.

A DAILY DOSE IN PRACTICE

How can daily singing as good practice transfer to state schools? Easily! What is there to stop any school from a daily five or ten minute sing for each and every class? Many schools have already discovered that they don't have to adhere rigidly to the old literacy hour clock.

There's one primary school I visit regularly where they know full well that there's nothing like a 10 minute sing in the middle of literacy to actually improve literacy! Recently, I visited another school where they appear quite convinced that a daily burst of singing by their boys is a great way of refocusing attention during numeracy and that this contributes significantly to their well above-average results.

ADAPTING THE STEINER APPROACH

What if you're not a Steiner-trained teacher who takes oral storytelling and singing in your stride? Well, Sing Up has already produced plenty of good rhythmic warm-ups and short songs that you can build into your lesson - with the CDs or the Song Bank doing the vital work of getting everybody going. And more are on the way.

Why not have a song of the week that you practise for five minutes a day? I cannot say that I am in agreement with the complete absence of computers in Steiner classrooms, but Steiner practice does perhaps remind us that we are developing minds, bodies and spirits.

Children need to be on their feet and using their voices and I suspect they will thank you for introducing a daily does of singing into their lives.

Take Note

If you'd like to get hold of the DfES Research Report 645 by Woods P, Ashley M and Woods G (2005),

entitled Steiner Schools in England, it is available from the DCSF.

Biography

Professor Martin Ashley is Head of Research at Edge Hill University Faculty of Education. He trained as a middle-school music specialist and taught for 17 years in Key Stages 1, 2 & 3 before moving into higher education 12 years ago. He is currently developing an online digital archive of children's singing games for primary schools, and is working with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain with the aim of producing a major resource on boys and singing.