Spring into Song

Area Leader Laurie Gethin introduces a creative Training and CPD project in Bristol to celebrate the season through song

Few teachers would worry about asking their classes to write a poem or paint a picture, but the thought of composing a song can make many teachers recoil in terror. Composing might appear to demand highly specialised skills, yet children's activities, particularly at the younger end of the age range, move quite naturally between words, visual images, movement and music. Composing 'happens' unconsciously from an early age when children experiment with sound. Does composing then present such a challenge for teachers?

The Spring into Song project was an attempt to begin to break down some of the barriers to approaching composing in class through a fun collaboration between Sing Up and St George's Bristol, a music venue with a focus on community and education.

The project enabled 12 schools to create new songs and a CD resource, guided by composer Mark Lawrence and poet Claire Williamson. Teachers attended two practical twilight sessions with Mark and Claire to explore the process of composition, followed by two sessions in school with their class. Here, we've collected thoughts from various people involved in the project...

Mark Lawrence - a composer's perspective

This project was a fascinating challenge because of the range of experience among the teachers and children participating. I've worked on many songwriting education projects, but this one was special because of the teacher focus. Some teachers were seeking help building confidence to approach composing with their classes for the first time. We therefore spent the first teacher sessions looking at simple starting points.

There were three approaches: starting with words, starting with a tune and adding words, and starting with a chord pattern (as with many pop songs). We looked at examples of how traditional songs are put together, often with a very simple musical idea which repeats, varies and is 'answered'. Sometimes a melody will use only three or four different notes.

One of the special aspects of this project was working at Elmfield School for the Deaf. Working in an environment where speech and song are apparently absent seemed an impossible challenge. But thanks to help from specialist musician Paul Whittaker from Music and the Deaf, inroads were revealed into working with rhythm and action. I was also struck by how laughter seems to transcend all disabilities.

Claire Williamson, poet

Working with the teachers, I focused on the creative process, looking at the risks associated with giving songwriting a try, and how uncomfortable it can feel at first. We used a variety of techniques, from drawing to poetry readings, to creating soundscapes and describing what we witnessed, to creating frozen pictures and even playing simple word assocation games.

Kate Neill, teacher, Elmfield School for the Deaf

We were so excited to be asked to be involved in the project, as singing is not something our children usually do. As staff, we were grateful for specialist input, helping us to improve our skills in teaching singing to deaf children. Paul Whittaker, from Music and the Deaf, visited us for a day and enthused all of us about the potential for deaf children to enjoy singing. It has been a steep learning curve for everyone, but it's also been lots of fun, too.

Anne McAllister, Deputy Head and class teacher St. Teresa's Catholic School

I thought the project would be fun to take part in. Year 3 had just completed a Literacy unit on poetry, and the children were fired up. When I introduced the project they were very keen. Some of them made up songs on the spot, and others said they were going to write some songs at home. They didn't seem to have any of the hang-ups that adults have!

We started the process in pairs, thinking of things they might see, hear, touch, smell and do during the spring. They then thought of adjectives or adverbs to describe what they'd come up with, eg. bright sun, blue sky, longer days. When we got back together as a class, they pooled their suggestions and we paired off some of the phrases that rhymed: 'Sun so bright, let's fly a kite/days get long, sing our song', etc. It was quite a quick process. Within an hour we'd written five verses and they were thrilled with the result.

Paul Meager, teacher, Kingsweston Special School

I was slightly apprehensive when invited to take part in the project. Many of the songs written for primary-aged children are inaccessible to our children as they have difficult concepts, or just too many words to cope with. What I really appreciated about this project is the approach that Mark took where the children were the ones coming up with the lyrics and the melody. Seeing their ideas develop was very motivating.

Songwriting was unexplored territory for me. This project gave me avenues into exploring songwriting with my pupils. I've been running a singing circle for some time, and it would be lovely if we could write our own songs for it and for school assemblies. The challenge now is to get other teachers and teaching assistants feeling confident both to lead singing activities, but also to feel able to explore songwriting with their classes too. The other staff have definitely benefited, and hopefully by seeing this songwriting approach modelled, they may develop the confidence to try out some ideas themselves.

Hannah Dartnell, teacher, St. John's Primary

When I was first asked to be involved in this project I thought it was a great idea for teachers and children to start songwriting. My only concern was writing a song with a large group of children without utter chaos! The workshops on composing and poetry writing were really useful as preparation.

I worked with a group of 53 children from Years 2-5. In the first session we began with the words. We did freeze in groups and thought of words to do with spring; adjectives and descriptive sentences. We then went on to discuss the chorus and came up with some catchy lines that could be repeated.

The children really felt that they had ownership of the song, because their ideas had formed it. Throughout the project, they constantly came up to me during the course of the day with different words and ideas, so it obviously made an impact!