Sing Up go for quality!

Sing Up is committed to helping you bring high-quality singing activities to primary-aged children. But how do you ensure and constantly improve the quality of singing?

Here in the Sing Up office we like to practice what we preach,so the whole team attended a workshop hosted by Shelly Ambury, Sing Up Quality and Awards Manager, to try out the Principles of Good Quality Vocal Leadership!

We had a fantastic afternoon of singing. Shelly started by leading us through a traditional African call-and-response warm up. We began in unison and then split into parts, gradually adding harmonies and movement. 

Next, we all really got into character, sitting on the floor in a circle to sing a short, simple song, suitable for KS1 and Early Years. Shelly illustrated the effectiveness of using props when teaching and singing songs, using a pop-up toy flower to focus our attention when it was our turn to sing, and introducing puppets to help us think more about the words we were singing and the story behind them.

Throughout the afternoon, apart from having a lot of fun, we all reflected on how Shelly illustrated PGQVL with the songs and tools she used.

Here's what we thought:

• Shelly was supportive and inclusive, easing us in with unison singing and the easy call-and-response style of learning. 
• Songs were of a middling vocal range ensuring we weren’t stretching our voices too much too soon, promoting good vocal health care.
• The session was engaging: with no paper to follow or difficult words to learn, we were immediately enjoying ourselves.
• Shelly employed many successful methods of communicating the session, from her positive body language, verbal and non-verbal instructions and using props. The props were also very effective in engaging us and focusing our attention on the activity and a brilliant example of how to consider different learning styles.
• It encouraged progression, allowing those who were inclined to add harmonies and movements to do so. Participants could also sing solos or even lead the group with the ‘Call’ in the first song.
• Shelly is clearly musical, knowing the right kinds of repertoire and activities to suit the needs of the group and the individuals within it.

Here are some songs from our Song Bank for you to try out yourselves –

call-and-response, Kye Kye Kule
KS1 with puppets, There’s a spider on the floor!

And why not have a look at some of our other resources around Quality –

Take a look at our definitive guide for vocal health: Inside the Voice
Why not try out our top ten tips in ‘How to lead a singing session’