After the success of Voice Box last year, I’m excited it is happening
again this autumn term. Whether you are a parent, a teacher or a Speech and
Language Therapist I’d like to help you inspire your local school to get
involved in Voice Box.
Communication is a fundamental part of our daily lives and
these skills begin to develop from birth. Humour is something that connects us
and allows us to share in experiences with others, building friendships and
providing joy. I love that Voice Box brings together the importance of communication
and how fun language can be. Humour is used a lot throughout our lives and I think
it’s a great way to explore language.
Last year I inspired a number of Leeds schools to get
involved in Voice Box (2 of which went on to represent their schools at the
final in London with one becoming the overall winner!) Read about the school competition, Leeds final or National Final at Westminster.
We were excited to get involved in Voice Box but it really
did exceed our expectations, even before we knew who had been shortlisted.
Everyone loved taking part right from the beginning and it was lovely to see
how enthusiastic the children were throughout. It was lovely to see the children
grow in confidence and they enjoyed sharing their jokes with their friends and
on stage. Some of the children required additional support from a Speech and Language
Therapist (me) and then delivered their jokes with confidence.
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| Tilly and Tom enjoying Voice Box |
If you work in primary schools I’d encourage you to get
involved in Voice Box as it was so much fun! I’ve devised a list of things I
did last year to inspire you as a starting point but I’d love to hear any of
your own ideas as I’m hoping to get schools involved again this year, and what
works for one school may not work for another. This is not an exhaustive list but hopefully will inspire you to help get schools involved.
1.
Inspire Schools and gain a key contact
It will be useful to mention Voice Box as
early as possible to begin to plant the seeds. I’ve just started a new job and
have already begun to mention it ready to remind them again in the Autumn term.
It can be a busy time and it is worth planning it in as soon as possible. If
you work in a number of schools, have a discussion with a key person in each
who will be enthusiastic about taking it forward. Last year I was really lucky
that both the SENCO and Head Teacher thought it was a brilliant idea and we
joined together to make a brilliant team to make it work.
2.
Help Staff identify which children may need
support
Voice Box is open to all children on primary
school age. Some children may have Speech, Language and Communication Needs
(SLCN) and need additional support to be able to understand and deliver their
joke. Last year I did a number of additional rehearsal sessions with some
children with SLCN to ensure they were able to learn and deliver their joke
confidently.
3.
Set a date and share with whole school
With the competition dates in mind, think
about when your school will hold your competition and how you plan to do it.
Are you going to have a whole school event on stage? Per class etc?
Once you’ve decided on a plan, share with
staff and students. I shared this with the children during an assembly and it
also went out in the school newsletter so parents knew it was happening.
4.
Invite MP and other judges
Once you’ve decided on a date decide if you
want to have a judging panel. This can be a really good way to link with MPs or
others. We wrote to the local MP and then I followed this up with a visit to
his surgery and invited him in person. We chose to have the event on a Friday
so that the MP would be in constituency and more likely to be able to attend.
Even if you don’t need the MP to be a judge it can be a good idea to write to
them and tell them it is happening as the final will be taking place in
Westminster.
5.
Lunch Time Joke Clubs
We had a number of lunch time joke clubs in
the weeks leading up to the event. These proved hugely popular and were so
oversubscribed that each class could only attend a lunch time joke club once in
order to allow everyone who wanted to be involved to have the opportunity to do
so.
The joke clubs consisted of looking at joke
books and thinking of our favourite jokes. I also prepared some jokes for the
younger children with the answers separate to the question to encourage the
children to match them according to what made them funny. These were popular
activities which inspired the children to think of jokes.
6. Joke Workshops (No Pens Day)
On No Pens Day I led some joke workshops in
each class which wanted them. For the younger children this was reading jokes from
children’s joke books and talking about which ones they liked best. With the
older children (year 3 and above) we looked at what makes a joke funny (creates
a funny picture in your head, uses double meaning (pun) etc.) I then showed
them jokes and the children had to decide why it was funny based on what we had
discussed. These were popular sessions and encouraged the children to think
about jokes. They were really nice sessions to have on No Pens Day as it was a
good speaking and listening topic and the children were already enthusiastic at
not having to write for the day.
These sessions could be led by the class
teacher and wouldn’t need to be done on No Pens Day.
7.
Other:
a.
Goody Bags – we gave each of the judges a goody
bag with a range of nice Giving Voice treats (as well as some chocolates!) This
is a good way of reminding the judges about Speech and Language Therapy after
the event. My dad created some small calendars for 2016 (as the events were in
December) with a range of nice photos and facts about Speech and Language
Therapy.
b.
Posters – The Voice Box toolkit has a poster you
can print and use but school decided to have a poster design competition over
the holidays which was also very popular. This allowed children who prefer to
be artistic to be involved in the whole school event even if they didn’t want
to enter a joke.
c.
Prizes – if you have a whole school event on
stage you could get medals etc. We got a trophy for the winning joke (which
read ‘I made people laugh’) and all the children who told a joke got a medal.
There are certificates to print from the toolkit too which we also gave the children.
8.
Size of event
Our event was quite large and
the whole school was involved, those who didn’t enter a joke watching the show.
I know of other school events that took place that were much smaller and just
as successful. Even if you don’t have much time you can still get your school involved.
My niece wrote to her Head Teacher and was then asked to present the idea in an
assembly. The children then had over night to think of a joke for the
competition the next day. A winner was chosen from each class and then an overall
winner was chosen to enter the competition.
Why should I get involved in Voice Box?
-
Language is fun!
-
Develops speaking and listening skills
-
Opportunity to link with local MPs
-
Spread awareness of Speech and Language Therapy
-
Develops confidence and self-esteem in children
-
Appeals to a wide range of children (and staff
alike)
-
Chance of being shortlisted to the National Final
in Westminster!
-
Create healthy competition between children and
between schools by organising a wider event
I hope you found this interesting and feel inspired to get
your schools involved. If you have any questions about how I got involved last
year or want to share ideas I’d love to hear from you @pinkjules_16
Voice Box is a joint initiative between RCSLT and The Communication Trust. For further details please see the official website http://www.givingvoiceuk.org/voice-box/
