Leading Singing in Secondary Schools: Get them singing, keep them singing

Wednesday 2nd October 2024

Twilight training sessions online for anyone working with singers of secondary school age

All the sessions of this new course for everyone leading singing in secondary schools were recorded and are now available for purchase. Each session includes 60 minutes of training plus 15 minutes for discussion.

Individual Sessions: £15/session, (£10/session abcd members)

Full series: buy all seven sessions for £85, (£55 abcd members).

Find out more about joining abcd here.

Session 1: Building a whole-school singing culture with Don Gillthorpe

Having spent a career building highly successful singing programmes in two state comprehensive secondary schools, Don brings a wealth of experience to support and encourage you to do the same. Amongst a whole host of contributing factors to the choral ecosystem in a school, this session explores the essential interplay between curricular and co-curricular music, adolescent vocal development, and how to work with school leadership teams to provide the best experiences for pupils.

Session 2: Adolescent Boys: You've got them singing, but how do you keep them singing? with Ian Crawford & Martin Ashley

In this session Martin and Ian spell out the things you need to do, why you need to do them, and how.

Session 3: Harmonise and inspire: empowering Year 6 and 7 singers with Suzzie Vango

Suzzie introduces some of her vocal techniques and repertoire to encourage and foster a love of singing for Y6 and Y7 children. Learn fun singing games, warm ups and pop-inspired songs written and arranged for this age group to arm you with an array of material to inspire and enhance your students' vocal skills and passion for singing.

Session 4: Exploring the voice change for females with Joanna Tomlinson

Discover the physiological changes that happen in the female teenage voice and how we can help our singers by having a good understanding of the challenges they may face. We will explore warm-up ideas and approaches to rehearsing that can help nurture and develop the female changing voice as well as tips on choosing repertoire for this age group!

Session 5: Singing's most endangered species - Teenagers with Rachel Staunton

Join Rachel, Artistic Director and Co Founder of The London Youth Choirs as she shares her learning of engaging and retaining diverse teenagers. With advice on repertoire selection, a steer on warm ups that build skills, stamina and engagement across the adolescents, and insight on embracing new trends and ways of working, Rachel shares her experience from setting up 10 youth choirs in the capital city.

Session 6: Conducting and musical leadership skills with Amy Bebbington

For teach

Session 7 - 2 October: Repertoire, repertoire, repertoire! with Simon Toyne

Join Simon as he shares his favourite repertoire to engage secondary school-aged children, whether in whole-class singing or choirs. He explores a diverse range of songs for whole class singing and choirs and discusses the best way to approach, plan and deliver an engaging singing session. Simon has decades of experience building a singing culture in a range of secondary schools, including Tiffin School and in state secondary schools across the DRET Academy Trust.

Session 8 - 10 September: Inspiring Singing at Secondary School: Resources, techniques and methods to support singing at Key Stage 3 with Gemma King

Join Ex Cathedra's Education and Participation Manager, Gemma King as she shares behind the scenes material from their award winning ChoirMaker project. As a Secondary Music Teacher herself, Gemma has first-hand experience of delivering singing in schools and developed this project alongside Ex Cathedra colleagues. She explores warm-up ideas, new repertoire, conducting skills, adding percussion, inspiring further listening and linking to the NPME2. ChoirMaker was awarded "Outstanding Music Education Resource" in the 2024 Music and Drama awards in London.

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