Quick Win – Singing Assembly in a box!

Singing assembly is one of the highlights of the week in our school but we generally took the decision to cancel if I wasn’t available to lead it. Other staff didn’t feel equipped to step in, citing reasons such as not being able to play the piano or not feeling confident singing in front of children.

So we started to think about how we could prepare a resource for other adults to use and how these singing assemblies might work. We then created a model that lots of adults in our school are now confident to use. So our top tips for putting together an easy singing assembly are:

Create a sing team

Even if your school doesn’t have adults who are confident leading singing from the front, you will definitely have some children who are! We have a core sing team of strong, confident, Year 6s who stand at the front and lead the singing. Each week, we select children from the other years who have been joining in enthusiastically and invite them to join the sing team for the next week.

Karaoke Classics

We have created a PowerPoint with embedded You Tube karaoke videos. Although this takes a little while to set up initially, it means there is a go to resource where all songs have been pre-vetted for appropriateness, both in terms of content and vocal range.

(You may need to have each song opened and cued up on a separate tab to avoid adverts in some versions.)

Using well known songs takes the pressure off the adult leading the assembly as we find the children need very little guidance from the front to join in.

There are lots of suitable karaoke versions available. We include lots of Disney – songs from the Lion King, Moana and the Jungle Book all work well. Musical theatre choices, such as songs from Matilda, are great. Other current favourites include Firework, Shotgun, Riptide and The Wellerman. Children often come to me with suggestions during the week – many of which I have to veto but some of them do get added in.

Another teacher pointed out to me that Karaoke is also great practice for our early readers. They are able to join in with the parts they know and having the words highlighted on the screen as they are sung enables all children to follow along regardless of their reading proficiency.

Another great resource is the Musical Toad website. https://www.musicaltoad.co.uk

Created by a primary school teacher, it only includes songs that are suitable for Primary Children and many include an option to have a guide vocal too. Our children love the versions of Purple People Eater and Whiskey in the Jar.

The Easy Win

The children love these karaoke assemblies. They may be less technical (and perhaps less musical) than the ones I lead but they more than make up for it with sheer enthusiasm and joyfulness. Adults and children alike leave the hall smiling and feeling uplifted. And after all, at primary age in particular, anything that fosters a love of singing and provides all the mental health benefits of a good sing song is definitely an easy win!

Lorna Ridley

Courthouse Junior School