How to set up and maintain a school choir: FAQs for Teachers

• Communication is key – if students don’t know when choir happens and what it involves, they will not feel encouraged to be there. Use a bright and welcoming design on posters and include examples of songs or composers they might perform. Tell students what the end goal will be e.g. to learn a new skill, improve musicianship or perform on stage at concerts
• Create an online sharing platform like Teams, where regular communication can happen with the choir and you can send up-to-date information out to students
• Schedule the weekly choir rehearsal at a time when you can optimise attendance, does lunchtime work best or as part of their regular music lesson, an after school activity may not be popular?
• A whole year group singing assembly is a good way to reach out to students – start with year 7s for longevity throughout school life; they will grow as singers each year. A singing assembly is also great to publicise the choir in general, so make an announcement with all the details: day and time, who is leading, what it involves
• Create community and a sense of belonging – it is important that students know that singing and choir are a great way to socialise and that they can learn from their friends as well as work with other year groups getting involved in the school community and acting as young role models – peer mentorship works!
• During class time or at the start of rehearsal, show them recordings of other inspirational choirs: London Youth Choirs, for example!
• Get students involved in programming the music – e.g. give them a choice of repertoire to vote on and plenty of time to contribute their ideas (such as a term in advance)

• Find musical approaches to engage them, use body percussion e.g. the warm up ‘Gimme 1’ or ‘Hello and how are you?’
• You could create a game to re-engage them in the moment e.g. like a real version of the video game Temple Run or ask the student to lead on a warm up from the front and give them clear instructions on what to do
• Sit a Teaching Assistant or LYC Assistant Leader next to them in the room and separate them temporarily from the students who they may be interacting with and disrupting and sit them with students who are taking part enthusiastically
• It is our job as music leaders to be as engaging as possible in the short time we have; choir should be fun, joyful and an inspiring place for students to go to feel safe and listened to, so look for positive interaction and affirm good practice/behaviour
• Ask a Teaching Assistant at the school to be present during rehearsals for young people who would normally have a plan for SEN support in the classroom

• There may be more streamlined arrangements of songs that could be sung as one line all together (tutti) or where harmonisation is not required – start with students learning the melody together
• Singing is great for creating attainable milestones and building blocks – start with one melodic line and then build to 2-part harmony then 4-parts and so on
• Try a warm up that’s a round or canon so that pupils can hear what harmonisation feels and sounds like
• Incorporate elements of the new song in the warm up to help students to embed a tricky line in their memories or use hand gestures to remind them of the words
• Building on the choir’s sound exponentially will also help you to listen to and understand the tonality of the voices you have within your choir and you can gradually move the students into upper and lower voices (and everyone in between!) over time. In the 11-16 age group there could be six vocal registers!

• Try and attend a LYC teacher CPD session (there’s one on Tuesday 4 March 2025) to get some handy tips which our music leaders will demonstrate in person and get you to try – it is helpful to feel and try this for yourself.
• See our list of online resources below for conducting guidelines
• Conducting using non-verbal gestures with your hands is effective – my turn/your turn, pitch patterning (up and down a scale) , 2 part rounds, start/stop and repeat sections that they aren’t getting right straightaway.

There are lots of resources available online from several singing organisations who work with young people (see below). Try and attend a CPD session and search for these in your local area. Contact LYC if you are interested in a training session for teachers: [email protected]