In a week where we celebrated 10 years of Friday Afternoons - a Britten Pears Arts led singing project connecting teachers and young people with contemporary composers through creating high quality repertoire resources and training – we recognised that singing in schools has changed significantly in the last decade; the government has released new model music curriculum and a new national plan for music education. In this Spark! event, we took the opportunity to explore the singing ecology for young people at a pivotal point in music education.

Our guest panel included: facilitator Baz Chapman, Manvinder Rattan (Voices Foundation), Michelle James (Sing Up), Lucy Hollins (National Youth Choir) Emily Barden (Britten Pears Arts Ambassador, Songwriter, Choral Director) and Craig Lees (Leeds Conservatoire, Living Vocally).

The Spark! Event launched two days of the National Singing Symposium (formerly the Singing Strategy Symposium) with presentations from Dr Liz Stafford (Music Education Solutions) on singing in the Model Music Curriculum and National Plan for Music Education and Debbie Winter (Voice Study Centre) on the importance of practitioner research in singing.

Along with discussions on the Ofsted Music Report: Bridging the gap between primary and secondary singing, an introduction the Primary Singing Toolkit and workshops exploring composition and songwriting resources as well as creating and singing Opera with Keely Morgan, Pamela Hay and Sarah Tipple (Royal Opera House) and and introduction to improvisation from pop to bebop with Becca Wilkins (Leeds Conservatoire). Rounding the event off with a session exploring exploring Friday Aftenoons Singing Project with Charlotte Brosnan & Charles MacDougall.