Hello! My name is Jonathan Coy, and I am CEO of HeadteacherChat™. I am delighted to have been given access to Sparkyard to see what they have on offer to support schools and I thought you would be interested to know what I discovered! 

Read the full review below....  

What is Sparkyard?  

Created by teachers for teachers, the fantastic team at Out of the Ark have now launched another high-quality and transformational resource, which will allow every teacher in every school to harness the power of singing and music. 

Out of the Ark’s new and easy-to-use subscription service Sparkyard is jam-packed with nearly 1,000 songs, as well as assembly plans, cross-curricular resources, an innovative, flexible music curriculum and much more.

Sparkyard provides a whole-school, unified approach to singing and music, by putting singing at the very heart of your school community. It allows people of all confidence levels to harness the power of singing in every area of school life, which will not only positively impact wellbeing and social cohesion but, as research has shown, it can also improve academic performance across all curriculum subjects. Sparkyard is optimised for mobile, tablet, desktop and whiteboard so can be used in a way that suits you.  

Watch a video: Where it all began:  https://www.outoftheark.co.uk/singing-school-project/#video

The platform has been carefully developed, with the help of 24 schools, 300 staff and over 8000 children, all helping to shape the product and get it to the high standard it is now.
During this time, there were over 15,000 minutes of singing and 562 activities were taught.
As a result of this, leaders reported a 10 % increase in the listening skills, reading fluency and phonological awareness in their pupils.

One headteacher said:
‘When children are happy, they learn better. When they learn better, they make more progress.’

Benefits:

• A transformational tool for primary education which allows teachers to harness the power of singing and music across the whole curriculum.   
• Over 1,000 songs so that teachers will easily be able to find a song for every occasion.
• Benefit from thousands of ideas, activities, and teaching tips in every curriculum area.  
• With an extensive library of ready-to-go assembly plans.
• A wide range of interactive ideas and tips that are easy to use for non-specialist. 
• Engaging and inspirational ideas for the whole curriculum.
• A whole-school solution for singing and music. 

Testimonials:

“It’s now become the backbone of my teaching this term. I love that I can find songs on almost any topic. The lesson plans are fast becoming indispensable – they provide a great starting point for my planning – and, most importantly, I can hear the children singing songs all over our school.” – Head of Music, High School.

“I really like Sparkyard, it is great that you can find everything in one place. I teach music so I am more than happy using it, it is easy enough for non-specialists to use in everyday teaching.” Headteacher, Primary School  

‘’What I would say to Heads about Sparkyard is it’s so easy, it’s such a quick win…and it’s going to help the feel-good factor, staff wellbeing, children’s wellbeing as well as being a great aid to memory which I think is going to help children in the long run in terms of the curriculum.’’ – Headteacher, Primary School

What does the team at HeadteacherChat™ think?  

• Sparkyard’s visionary approach to put singing at the heart of the school, so that music can be used across the whole primary curriculum, is what makes this a fantastic product. 
• Non-music specialists can easily understand and use it in everyday teaching 
• It’s fun and easy to use, and the staff and children love using it
• Singing can be used to teach any lesson right across the school. 
• We were very impressed by the sheer number of ready-to-use, topic and values-based assemblies. These also included high quality resources. 
• The assembly pack is all planned for you, perfect for busy school leaders. It’s also really clear and easy to follow. 
• We liked the fact that all subjects were catered for, including PSHE, wellbeing, science and maths.
• There’s even a handy search bar, allowing you to find the resources you need quickly and easily. 

Sparkyard has the HeadteacherChat™ Stamp of Approval because:  

'The team at Out of the Ark have now launched another fantastic resource enabling teachers to teach a variety of subjects through singing and music. Sparkyard is an incredibly user-friendly teaching platform with a huge variety of music lessons and assemblies for teachers and leaders to choose from. 

If I was a headteacher I would definitely use Sparkyard, as it places singing and music at the heart of the school and curriculum.' 

Jonathan Coy CEO, HeadteacherChat™. June 2022  

Find out more:   

Out of the Ark website – https://outoftheark.com  

Sparkyard website – https://sparkyard.com  

‍