Six Ways Sing Up can support your teaching
Do you wish you had high-quality, engaging music lessons already prepared for the whole school? Are you keen to introduce ukulele but not sure where to start? Need fresh ideas for your assemblies or songs for your developing choir? Luckily, we can help – along with our new partner programme Sing Up.
Sing Up is a leading digital music teaching platform that many schools are signed up to. Not only does it include an amazing range of songs but a complete music curriculum, ukulele, and percussion resources and much more!
So, how could Sing Up support you to deliver accessible and engaging music lessons?
No more midnight planning sessions
Do you dream of captivating lessons without hours and hours of planning? Sing Up’s game changing primary music curriculum is an ideal resource for specialists and non-specialists alike.
Whether you’re looking for inspiration – like songs which kick off singing, playing, listening, composition and improvisation activities – or whole lesson resources there’s plenty to explore. Overall, we love the integrated and accessible approach. We’re particular fans of the downloadable PowerPoints with embedded videos, the variety of songs and snapshot activities across the year to show progression. It’s definitely Ofsted-pleasing!
Kickstart your Choir and Assemblies
Struggling for choir tunes or assembly inspiration? Sing Up’s massive Song bank is your saviour! Explore pre-set playlists for primary and secondary choirs, plus a range of assembly topics to save you time and precious brain space.
Need to fine-tune? You can adjust the tempo, key, or even separate harmonies of tracks to make sure the song suits you as much as it does your students.
Even more excitingly, the new Student Access feature allows you to send resources directly to pupils. Fostering independent learning while saving you time AND photocopying? Yes please!
Secondary School Savvy
Thought Sing Up was exclusively for primary schools? Think again.
Secondary teachers can explore a host of thematic resources including ‘The Magic of Minimalism’, ‘Exploring improvisation using Mashups’ and ‘Baroque Vocal Music.’ Crafted by top educators, these gems develop skills and vocabulary through hands-on music-making and, of course, loads of singing. Resources include plenty of ways to evidence learning, as well as links to other repertoire to explore in Sing Up and beyond.
Strumming and Drumming with Ukulele and Percussion
Surprising as it may seem, Sing Up is not just for singing! Dive into Play Ukulele and Play Percussion, their specialised programmes, for comprehensive and exciting instrumental resources. As teachers, they can really stretch your options when it comes to mixing up your curriculum or ditching those same old units.
Sing Up’s units focus on enjoyments of playing in a group, developing ensemble and music notation skills. The instrumental units can be interchanged with those in the main curriculum, providing an easy way of covering these skills! Sing Up also supports YOU as teachers, providing a range of supportive teaching videos and videos of professional performers to inspire your young musicians.
Cross-curricular connections
The 100-strong Sing Up song bank can seamlessly integrate music into your regular curriculum. A quick filter by age groups brings up the most relevant songs for assignments – from Labi Siffre’s inspirational ‘Something Inside So Strong‘ for KS2-4 in a Black History lesson to the spirited ‘Alien Shuffle’ song for a fun Space theme.
Supporting SEN music-making
Not all resources are easy to adapt when you’re catering to a range of needs in the classroom. However, Sing Up is committed to making music education engaging and accessible to all, and makes it easy for you to do the same!
Every song has teaching notes to guide you in methods of teaching that particular song but under the SEND tab on the homepage, you will find a range of Makaton/ BSL videos for enhanced accessibility.
Some of our favourites include the Makaton ‘A Keelie’, an African call and response song suitable for KS1/2, and the BSL video of ‘I Wish I knew (how it would feel to be free)’ for KS2/3.
Think Sing Up could support you to make music lessons even better?
Find out more about the resource, explore our comprehensive Introduction to Sing Up, and see how you can implement it in your school on our dedicated Sing Up page.