Primary Robins: November half term report

It has been a fantastic half term, with now over 1000 Primary Robins (from Hayling Island to Durham) singing for thirty minutes every week.

On a rainy Thursday morning I arrived at Redbridge School and instead of walking into Orange class I felt I had entered Fagin’s den. The children were singing a wonderful rendition of Consider Yourself with many a possible Artful Dodger and Oliver! The diction was great and they are really beginning to create a lovely legato line by singing through long notes, such as on the –self of yourself.

There has been fierce competition between the classes as to who can sing London’s Burning divided into the most groups. David splits them into months in which their birthday falls and Turquoise class are the champions with six.

I am always surprised by which are the favourite songs in each Songbook. Yellow Submarine has been a big hit with the boys. Whilst singing this song, one boy was swaying to and fro – so David asked, “What’s going on in your submarine”? His reply was “I am putting passion into it”!!

Winnall School is one of the new schools this year and there is a noticeable difference in their singing compared to those schools that have had a year of Primary Robins – who are more confident, breathe correctly and have a good grasp of pitch, dynamics and rhythm.

David asked the new children to give themselves a big hug and whilst doing so take a deep breath – it is not possible to raise ones shoulders in this position and so the breath is kept low in the tummy.

At another of the new schools, the children taking part in Primary Robins sang Consider Yourself at their school Harvest Festival service. To make the song even more relevant, they changed furniture to festival and well in to well fed. The rest of the school and staff were very impressed with the singing – it is not something they often do here.

My Favourite Things is a favourite song with boys and girls alike in all the schools and many of the new children are beginning to sing it beautifully. I asked the children what an “apple strudel” is – they answered, “an apple from a different country”.

I then asked the children what some of their favourite things were:

Chocolate, football, hamsters, minecraft, fluffy kittens, ice cream and, now it seems, singing.

Annabel Larard – Project Leader