22/11/07
After months of hard work, Sing Up has gone live and millions of children stand to benefit. The dynamic package of resources, training, activities and events has the potential to transform the singing experiences of children in primary schools, communities and beyond. But what will success look like, and how will it be measured?
Sing Up Programme Manager Baz Chapman reflects on Sing Up's role and the impact and legacy he hopes it will deliver.
MM: After all the months of hard work, how does it feel to see Sing Up go live?
I'm absolutely ecstatic! It's a really exciting beginning and I think we are looking forward to some of the most exciting years for music education that we have ever seen in this country. But it's important to remember that Sing Up is the culmination of a huge amount of singing activity that has gone on over the last few years, much of it unrivalled anywhere in the world. What we're going to do is join all that together and make sure that every young child has access to brilliant singing experiences.
How much of the team's work is about simply getting the message out there?
It's crucial that Sing Up gets the recognition it deserves. What we're looking at is 4.5 million children, that's every primary school in England. We want to give literally every child the opportunity to access high quality singing activity, and that means that we've got to get the word out there. I've already said that there are lots of pockets with brilliant activity, but there are also lots of pockets where there isn't any activity. We want to provide support to teachers and singing leaders, and to parents, to show them how to get young people singing. Our message is all about drawing people into the website to see all of the fantastic resources that are available free of charge and then to let them know about all of the other stuff that's happening.
Where does Sing Up fit into the overall music education agenda?
Singing is incredibly important and in many ways it's the first access to music. But music is incredibly important and the Music Manifesto has been helping government to understand that music is far more than just music lessons: it improves confidence, it improves behaviour, it improves learning, it's healthy, it's good fun. It joins schools together and it certainly joins pupils together within schools. There are so many wider benefits of music in general. We are a very proud part of that. I believe that it's going to be a brilliant few years for music education in general.
There will be sceptics. How will you tackle them?
It's hard to find anything that's bad about singing because it is such an affirming and confidence-building activity, which is also good for you. And it doesn't need to be at the expense of anything else. Singing is free; it doesn't cost anything to do. It's not placing people in a difficult position, it's not expecting them to give up other things to sing. Singing is part of what we all do, it's as natural as talking and it's been around since the dawn of time. This is something about people and about people feeling better about themselves and enjoying life more. That's only going to enhance everything else that people do in life, whether that's learning or whether that's other participatory activities. Singing should be at the core of that. We want singing back in the national culture.
How will people 'see' a difference as a result of Sing Up?
The first entry to Sing Up is through enjoyment. One of the activities we've been demonstrating, as part of the launch, is something called 'Singing Playgrounds', a model for children so that they are singing but playing at the same time. That emphasises the fact that this is a fun activity. All children will certainly get a chance to do that. But we would like to get to a position by 2011 where every school in the country is singing every day, as a whole-school activity but also inside the classroom and outside the classroom, and that young people are singing at home, in the car, that they just feel confident to do it. What we'd also like to see, and this is something we are measuring through research, is that singing is actually helping in other areas: in literacy and numeracy, to improve memory retention, team building, many kinds of things. I think that's what the government recognises - that singing and musical activities are actually going to improve human beings in general. I think a few years down the line we will have some solid evidence to show for that.
Sing Up is run for the Music Manifesto National Singing Programme by a consortium comprising Youth Music, Faber Music, The Sage Gateshead and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.
Find out more about Sing Up and register your primary school for a free magazine and CD at: www.singup.org