The Sing Up Foundation continue British Council’s World Voice programme

March 2020 marked the end of the British Council’s World Voice Programme. Now, the Sing Up Foundation is taking on the international programme to build on its seven-year legacy.

Set up in 2013 with artistic director Richard Frostick, World Voice was developed by the British Council to train teachers overseas to use singing as a learning tool and has since impacted over 12,000 teachers and 1.55 million children across 23 countries.

Cathy Graham OBE, director of music at the British Council, said: ‘As Sing Up is the organisation which delivered the National Singing Programme in England during 2007 – 2012 which was the original inspiration for World Voice, we can say that the programme is returning home.’

The programme sent experienced singing leaders to work with children, then train their teachers. Some teachers also received further training to become Master Trainers who mentored other teachers and helped the teaching cascade throughout the community.

In partnership with governments, NGOs, UN agencies, arts organisations and schools, World Voice supported a range of teaching areas, including language learning and subject-specific teaching. The programme outcomes, evaluated by Sound Connections, support established research about the wide-ranging benefits of singing for health and wellbeing as well as on children’s sense of achievement, social skills, behaviour, and engagement.

Head of the Sing Up Foundation, Celi Barberia, said: ‘It‘s clear that World Voice had a profound impact and over the next year we will develop the work to celebrate the legacy established by the British Council and create a revitalised World Voice programme.’ The programme’s resources and handbook will now be available through the Sing Up Foundation website as well as videos, the Sound Connections evaluation and a selection of song materials.