A region wide project to promote a culture of singing throughout the school community.

Vocal Union is a year long programme aiming to embed singing into all aspects of school life. Expert vocal practitioners facilitate sessions for whole classes and teachers, aiming to give teachers confidence, skills and repertoire to take into their practice.

Training is a key part of Vocal Union - class teachers and musicians work in partnership together to develop a collaborative and creative approach to curriculum delivery.

As well as encouraging singing across the whole curriculum, Vocal Union can support the music curriculum in schools and work alongside teachers to develop greater understanding of musical concepts and how to use singing in the delivery of the National Curriculum.

For Vocal Union enquiries:
sarah.kekus@thesagegateshead.org
claire.tustin@thesagegateshead.org
For resources & website enquiries:
jillyjarman@mac.com


APRIL 2011
Feedback

About the sessions in school:

"Vocal Union empowered and inspired our teachers, the programme was perfectly pitched and has had a positive effect on every aspect of school life." (Myra Edwards, Head Teacher, Biddick Infants School, South Shields)

"Having sessions taught by specialists and being able to watch them in action has given me lots of good ideas/songs that have been fed back into class."
(Teacher, Jesmond Road Primary School, Hartlepool.)

About the training sessions at TSG:

"Fantastic training! Lots of lovely kinaesthetic ideas that could be used in the classroom with children straight away. Loved having the chance to just chat to other teachers and musicians and share songs and ideas…Thank you."

(Teacher, Burradon Primary School)

Vocal Union's twofold aims:

Whole School Singing -

where every class and every child in the school is encouraged to sing within the school curriculum and across the school day.

Vocal Remedies

is an integral part of the programme where staff are brought together to sing and explore repertoire suitable for their classes. Involving staff in vocal ensembles is enjoyable, relaxing and effective in engaging staff in the excitement of music-making. It also ensures that staff increase their confidence in singing with their classes. This would be open to all teaching and support staff, parent helpers, and governors. The time of day is determined by individual schools.

We have been running Vocal Union for 5 years now in primary and secondary mainstream and special school settings. We offer a variety of different singing approaches to suit each school and the package is bespoke to each school's particular needs.

Primary

Singing and song writing through the curriculum
Developing the music curriculum
Literacy and Speech developments
Youth Leadership
Supporting children with SEN
Supporting and developing school choirs

Secondary

Targeting subject areas such as humanities; using singing and song writing to enrich the curriculum, accelerate learning, increase motivation and engagement.
Feeding into the music curriculum with specific genres e.g. folk, jazz, blues.
Supporting children with SEN

£2000 buys:

1 vocal leader for 18 half day sessions over the year, 54 hours delivery in total. 6 hours for meetings, review and planning.
1 training day for workshop leaders and teachers at The Sage Gateshead in July, date tbc., available for up to 3 teachers from each school.
Access to singing resources from Sing Up and Vocal Union.

Find out more about the Schools Programme at The Sage Gateshead






Sing Up, the Music Manifesto National Singing Programme, produced by Youth Music with AMV-BBDO, Faber Music and The Sage Gateshead supported by Government.
Vocal Union has been part-funded through Sing Up and was part of its national singing programme.