Earlier this year, the UK government announced a plan to invest £10 million on an initiative to promote singing in schools. The government’s so-called singing ambassador – composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall - will spearhead the project. Today on Aled Jones’ Radio 3 programme The Choir Goodall, who has penned theme tunes for Blackadder, Vicar of Dibley and others, explained how an organized singing programme i.e. singing incorporated into day-to-day classroom activities including learning of times tables, can improve behaviour and drive dramatic improvements in struggling schools.

The programme is worth hearing in its entirety (it will be gone after seven days), not least for

some of the choral works of Hungarian composer and educational pioneer Zoltan Kodaly. Aled Jones also highlighted Estonia’s very ambitious goals in youth music education.

People are often told they are tone deaf at an early age, which the programme’s contributors insisted was never true. But the loss of confidence from such treatment is usually immediate and permanent. “The Singing School” initiative pioneered in Manchester, which is being used as an example of best practice by Goodall, showed how children themselves could cascade enthusiasm and knowledge from class to class, particularly where a teacher lacked the musical confidence to lead their own pupils in song.

Like Jamie Oliver’s attack on school dinners, to which the programme nodded, these projects demonstrate that an indirect or holistic approach can be a lot more effective in improving performance than testing and league tables.

Assorted links:-

Music Manifesto

Southwest Sound

Related Posts

1. nothing compares
2. facing the great white
3. why the rich get richer – read all about it
4. will doctor who regenerate the organ?
5. nobody knows anything (football version)