Sing Up aims to help all kids find their voice. During one of our training workshops in London, Doug Bott from Drake Music introduced an enthusiastic group of teachers to new ways for disabled children to sing.
Drake Music works to break down disabling barriers to music through innovative approaches to teaching, learning and making music; nurturing creativity through exploring music and technology in imaginative ways.
Workshop participants represented a variety of educational settings and were able to share the challenges that their work posed. With Doug’s help they were able to explore ways of making the accessible Sing Up resources work for them and the children they teach; for example, using clicker 5 to create new versions and enhance songs with images and sound effects.
Participants left the workshop with notebooks full of great ideas and new found confidence to incorporate these methods into their teaching. Rachel Mooney from St Roses Special School in Stroud said:
"It was so useful to get hands on experience of the clicker 5 software. I’m leaving with lots of really good ideas that I can take into the classroom and use straight away."
Together with Sing Up, Drake Music have created accessible singing resources for fifteen songs on the Sing Up Song Bank.
The resources contain ideas for including a wide range of SEN / Disabled children in singing activities but are particularly useful for those who face significant physical or communication barriers to singing (PMLD). As a result, Song Bank favourites such as Alice the camel and Senwa dedende can now be sung using electronic communication resources such as Clicker 5, Big Mack switches and VOCAs (Voice Output Communication Aids).
Watch a fantastic video of the Drake Music resources in action!
To use the accessible resources on the Song Bank, select ‘Clicker 5, VOCA, SEN ideas’ in the ‘Display Songs by…’ menu.
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