Songs For Schools
Writing a Song For Your School
To Book a Songwriting Session with your school or to discuss how I could help your school write their own school song please e mail me here at: jane@janetaylor.co.uk
Having your own unique School song, written especially for your school by the children of your school is a wonderfully creative way of reinforcing your schools identity and values. It can give children and teachers a sense of where they are and what it means to be at their school. When a school sings together about the things that make their school so special it becomes a celebration of what unites them, where they are going and why they are there. And, crucially, it lasts and can be sung by every generation to come.
How it works
Initially I like to have a good chat with the head or Principal about what sort of message the School song needed to communicate. I would ask about what your school values most of all, whether there is a school motto and how you would best describe the character of your school. I would also want to get a sense of what positive messages the children wanted to reinforce about their school . I would look at whether there was anything in your school history we should be celebrating and what your school wants to aim for in the future.
Working with the children
I think it's important that children feel that their school song was written by THEM. I will thread the whole thing together, but getting their input on how they see their school can help them feel a part of the whole project.
I can discuss with you how you would best like to achieve this. I can provide questionnaires for the children and teachers. to help them focus on the positive aspects of their school life. I can also run a mind mapping session with up to 30 children (perhaps representatives from each year).
Alternatively, this can be work that is covered within classrooms where teachers explore the values of their school and what the children see as their schools identity. That work could be presented to the school and shared with me, so that I might try and incorporate those messages into the song.
There is a lot of opportunity here to make this a great school project that could connect with the curriculum and work across all year groups.
Presenting the song
The song is presented as a sheet of lyrics and chord (you will also get a digital copy for duplication). It can be scored on request and a simple recording will be placed on a cd so that a member of staff can learn it in case they wish to accompany the children. I can also create a backing track for the children to sing to on public occasions.
Recording and making cd's for the parents
There is also the option of recording the song properly at the school once it's written and selling it to the parents and family to help raise money for your school. The children also get to learn about recording and how a cd is made.