In January 2007, the Government announced it would be investing £10 million in a national singing programme for primary school-aged children. The investment aimed to ensure that good quality singing was central to young children’s lives. As part of that announcement, Howard Goodall was appointed to be the National Singing Ambassador. In November 2008, the government made a further announcement of funding for Sing Up, which is now a four year programme running until March 2011 with £10m per year.

Sing Up
Sing Up’s overall aim is to raise the status of singing and increase opportunities for primary school children throughout the country to enjoy singing as part of their everyday lives.

Some funding has already been distributed to organisations to fund 15 Sing Up Communities as well as 19 Funded Programmes in England in year one. In 2008 we will be funding 5 Sing Up Flagship projects.

The contributors
Sing Up is overseen and managed by Youth Music, the UK’s largest children’s music charity. It comprises a national singing resource or Song Bank led by Faber Music, a media and schools campaign highlighting the benefits of singing led by top agency AMV BBDO and a Workforce Development Programme to build the confidence and expertise of primary school teachers, musicians and parents in leading and supporting children’s singing activities led by The Sage Gateshead.

Additional projects
Two additional strands of work are already in development through Sing Up: The Choir Schools Association is expanding its Chorister Outreach Programme, and Youth Music has developed MusicStart, a fun easy-to-use pack to encourage families with 2-5 year olds to make music at home.

Youth Music
MusicStart
Faber Music
AMV BBDO
The Sage Gateshead
The Choir Schools Association