iSingPOP is a project led by the Innervation Trust, engaging with young people in schools, teaching them fun and exciting songs all based around the Christian faith which help the children to explore their spirituality and enhances the schools’ Collective Worship provision.
They typically work with every year group in a school, teaching them songs and dance routines for several days before bringing in professional equipment to record their CD and then holding a celebratory concert for their family and friends in the local church.
Prior to lockdown, the charity was working with more schools than ever before, building a new website, focussing on social media and had just started trialling a Church Resource Pack, so that churches could host iSingPOP interactive sessions and in turn engage more effectively with young people. Then lockdown hit hard, and all classroom and church work had to be put on hold immediately.
In response, iSingPOP brought forward the launch of their planned YouTube channel, which went live as part of The Church of England’s Faith at Home initiative. A series of videos were released every week, building on faith work carried out within schools to continue the development and pastoral care of young people and their families from home. Initial episodes were focused around the themes of joy, fear, hope, thanks, unity, love, patience, equality, kindness, resilience and reconciliation.
iSingPOP’s involvement with the Faith at Home initiative has also resulted in a partnership with the Church of England to script, write and present the Oak National Academy’s online assemblies.
Miz Porter, Director of iSingPOP, said: “We had the rug pulled out from under us overnight and we really couldn’t have adapted our model to serve the needs of young people in lockdown without additional funding. We have been so blessed to be able to keep bringing fun and hope to young people and families, and we’re excited for the future.”
This term the charity is focusing on their brand new resource, Classroom Worship, which offers teachers a template to run 12 to 15 minute worship sessions with their class online. The resource speaks into COVID, exploring concepts around courage and resilience alongside compassion to show how to cope in difficult times.