A year of young people's choral outreach
30 Jul 2024
In mid-2023, NZCF embarked on an outreach project focusing on children and youth.
This project was titled "Singing For Lifelong Wellbeing" and was funded through a Ministry for Culture and Heritage Regeneration Fund grant. The goal of this outreach was to get more children singing, and to keep them singing after they leave school, so that they can reap the myriad physical, psychological, developmental and social benefits that singing offers.
Between mid-2023 and mid-2024, we held 17 workshops that upskilled 184 primary and intermediate teachers, and we provided 21 specialist mentors to work with teachers in 52 schools. That training had an immediate impact on over 2000 children, with the potential to benefit thousands more. We trained a cohort of 24 talented young musicians in choral conducting and assisted several groups establishing youth choirs. And we created significant resources for classroom singing and for young people establishing their own choirs.
We're pleased to share just a few highlights of this far-reaching project here, and we hope we can continue this work over the years to come.
"Let's Get Singing" teacher workshops
To address a lack of resources and support for classroom singing across Aotearoa, we offered 17 free professional development workshops, from Whangārei to Invercargill, to help primary and intermediate teachers kickstart singing in their classrooms.
The three-hour, practical workshops catered to teachers
• Singing for teachers to enhance their own musicianship and wellbeing.
• Help with developing classroom, assembly, or co-curricular singing in their school.
• Resources and songs for different year groups, including waiata Māori.
• Ideas for using singing for routines, to reinforce learning, and for fun!
In-school mentoring
We recruited 21 experienced music educators to act as mentors within this project. They advised teachers on leading children's singing, both in their own classrooms and in assembly settings; demonstrated effective song leading; and recommended suitable resources and repertoire.
Across the motu, 52 schools received between one and nine hours of mentoring. A total of 236 hours of mentoring was provided.
It was incredibly rewarding to see teacher confidence growing thanks to the workshops and mentorships. A teacher from Ōpōtiki Primary School commented, “It's great to have a program to reach out to help teachers who have no or little knowledge of how to implement music and singing into learning effectively. Spending time with a mentor was absolutely fantastic. My students were captivated by the mentor’s lessons." An Auckland teacher said, “The mentor’s advice has been invaluable. I want the best for my students, and I am so grateful to be supported so I know what my next steps are.”
Resources for classroom singing
Our first Children's Outreach Coordinator, Helen Acheson, put together a series of pages on the NZCF website full of links to repertoire, videos, and activities for teachers to use to get their classrooms singing. This library is organised by student year level and ensures that NZCF's face-to-face outreach is backed up by a wealth of resources that teachers can use at any time, regardless of whether they've received mentoring or attended a workshop.
"Let's Get Singing" video resources
The videos include waiata Māori and Samoan pese, songs in Niuean and Chinese Mandarin, and traditional and contemporary songs in English. In each video, there's a set of physical and vocal warm-ups before the presenter teaches a song, bit-by-bit. Each video is accompanied by teacher notes, sheet music, a karaoke video and a downloadable backing track.
Hear Artistic Advisor Megan Flint chatting to RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump about the video series, and the outreach project as a whole.
A revised edition of Hear Our Voices
Hear Our Voices, a handbook for leaders of children's choirs written by Maria Winder, Megan Flint and Mary Cornish, was originally published several years ago. Through this outreach project, we've been able to produce a revised edition with new chapters on waiata Māori (by Kriss Rapana and Melissa Absolum) and Pasifika choral music (by Elisha Fa'i-So'oialo), and a treasure trove of new and updated resources.
We'll soon have this edition available on our website in the form of freely downloadable chapters. Hard copies will also be available for purchase.
Young Conductor training
After surveying our youth databases and reaching out to regional youth choirs across Aotearoa, we selected 24 young people aged between 16 and 27 to be a part of our Young Conductor training. Divided into two groups, these Young Conductors and Advanced Young Conductors were mentored by Dr Andrew Withington and Elise Bradley and attended three full-day workshops and a number of group and individual Zoom sessions with their mentors. The Advanced group also received mentor guidance and feedback on rehearsals with their choirs.
Wellington-based Young Conductor Chloe Eichler said, “More than just improving my conducting, this programme has made me a better musician. My relationship to music as a singer and an instrumentalist has changed because I have a new way of viewing and making music.”
"A Young Person's Guide to Starting a Choir"
We created an extensive resource called “A Young Person’s Guide to Starting a Choir”, which is located on the NZCF website. This resource addresses planning and research, setting up officially as a legal entity, the administrative side of running a choir, budgeting, financial matters and fundraising, and includes links to many other resources such as health and safety, copyright issues, and digital and marketing tools.
Though this resource was created under the umbrella of the outreach project and with young people — such as our Young Conductors — in mind, the resources and guidance within it apply to anyone who wants get a singing group going, whether they consider themselves "young" or not!
The "Singing for Lifelong Wellbeing" team
We're grateful to Maria Winder (Children's Outreach Coordinator), Diana Cable (Youth Outreach Coordinator) and Megan Flint (Artistic Advisor) for their vital work on this project. Our sincere and enduring thanks also go to the late, beloved Helen Acheson who began work on this project as Children's Outreach Coordinator before her unexpected death in 2023.