LITTLE children from nine schools in Christchurch got the chance to sing to each other during a special event.

Hosted at Christchurch Junior School on Clarendon Road, the Sing-along was organised by Twynham Primary School with help of two singing coaches with funding from Dorset County Council's Singing Strategy scheme.

The other schools who took turns to stand up and sing included Christchurch Infants, Highcliffe Primary, Somerford Primary, The Priory School, Mudeford Infants, St Joseph's Primary and St Katherine's Primary.

At the end of the morning, all of the schools worked together to perform Come On and Sing as a collective, led by their class teachers, Jane Ashenden from Christchurch Infant School and Simon Adorian, head of Christchurch Junior School.

Jane Ashenden from Christchurch Infant School said: "These are younger children aged from four to eight years-old who were at Christchurch Junior School for a sing-along.

"They have been practicing for a couple of months and it was an opportunity to have the younger children from the local schools come together and enjoy singing."

Gemma Hinchliffe, one of the two singing coaches from Twynham School along with her sister, Amelia Ritchley-Wright, said: "They've been absolutely brilliantly and have shown real enthusiasm.

"It's obvious that they love singing and music. It's also nice for the class teachers, who don't necessarily specialise in music, to be able to take the experience of singing back into the classroom."

Dorset County Council's website states that the the Government has set core roles for Hubs to ensure national consistency and equality of opportunity.

It says that one of them is to develop a singing strategy to ensure that every pupil sings regularly and that choirs and other vocal ensembles are available in the area.

The statement continued: "Over the last couple of years, we have grown the singing strategy by funding pyramids/clusters of schools to encourage them to work together in accessing innovative providers to take singing in their schools/areas to the next level."