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Caretakers asked to teach singing - a news article

Schools are being encouraged to hire dinner ladies and caretakers to teach singing following a decline in formal lessons:

Ministers announced today that £40million would be spent over the next three years to get more children to sing at primary school.

They claim music is vital for the development of other skills such as memory, selfconfidence and team work.

As part of the move, they are hiring a series of “singing ambassadors” to take classes.

Most will not be teachers but are likely to be drawn from the “wider school workforce and local parents”, the Government said.

This includes staff such as caretakers, receptionists, road safety officers and dinner ladies.

“They might get kids singing with the road safety officer on the way to school, organise playground skipping songs led by the dinner ladies, or have the receptionist run songwriting sessions,” said the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

But the Conservatives insisted the move smacked of “desperation” – and said the Government should invest more in qualified teachers.

Nick Gibb, the Tory shadow schools minister, said: “Cash made available for this should be focused on teachers because children need to be taught by the best-trained professionals and not by amateurs from other walks of life.” Despite huge interest in singing fuelled by television talent shows such as X-Factor, the number of pupils having singing lessons has fallen by half in recent years.

A government-backed study by the Institute of Education, part of the University of London, found only five per cent of primary schoolchildren had training in 2007.

Taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/3966672/Caretakers-asked-to-teach-singing.html

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