‘SingIN!’ is a new inclusion project that aims to use music to bring people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities together through singing.
The project has been led by Addington School and Arbour Vale School and involves students from St Bernards (Slough) and The Emmbrook (Wokingham) Secondary Schools, and Lynch Hill (Slough) and South Lake (Woodley) Primary Schools. The project is supported by Slough Music Service and Wokingham Borough Council.
Every student has been linked with a ‘buddy’ in one of their partner schools whom they will meet at regular rehearsals throughout the month long project. Each school will practice their songs on their own, and come together each week with their buddy from a different school to rehearse too. Two rehearsals will be by video conferencing, where schools from Slough and Wokingham can sing, see and talk to each other by video.
The aims of the project are to:
- Develop an awareness of pupils in other school settings
- Develop and appreciation of talents, abilities and interests of pupils in other school settings
- Discovering common ground with others in the community
- Develop singing skill and confidence
- Develop team working skills, particularly 1:1 collaborative peer learning
The songs are: Don't Stop Believing, Everybody in love, Just the way you are, Lost, Pack Up, Price Tag, Proud, Rolling in the deep, Shower The People, Starmaker, Umbrella and Viva La Vida. The songs they have chosen will be sung by everyone, with different buddies singing different verses as solos.
The project began with a launch day at Addington School which brought all of the students taking part together to sing. The day was led by the professional vocal group Voces8.
The project concludes with a perform alongside staff and parent Community Choirs and be accompanied by a rock band in the final concert performance at Bearwood College on Sunday 16th October 2011. The concert will be an exciting evening bringing together around 120 children and adults: music truly is a universal language that has no boundaries!
See the 'pages' links on the right for more details of each stage of the project and comments from some of the schools taking part.