Senior Choir
Part of our childrens choir is an “upper” choir, known as the senior choir. Members are those in year 6 and above and our aim with this part of the choir is to firsly take their learning to a new and more advanced level of understanding and performance, but secondly to recognise their value in assisting the more junior members of the choir. Part of this project is about giving responsiblity and transitioning them from the world of primary school, into secondary and ultimately into adulthood. Often we need to communicate to these children directly, which can be tricky when they are spread across different schools. We have found parents want to give more direct responsibility for choir arrangements to their children once they reach senior choir.
We therefore took the decision to open a WhatsApp group for senior choir members (unfortunately for safeguarding reasons the Year 6 children are not able to participate). With parents permission, we allow year 7 and above children to participate in the group directly with Mr Coates. There are clearly some safeguarding concerns with such a group and we have taken steps to protect everyone as much as possible following discussions with both NSPCC and the Cambridge and Peterborough Safeguarding Partnership. The outcome of those discussions is that we have a digital and online data policy and all choir volunteers are required to undertake additional online safety training through NSPCC. A further outcome is that specific permission is required from parents before any child is allowed to join the group.
How does the group work?
Much like the choir parents group chat, telephone numbers are exposed to all members of the group, but messages are end to end encrypted and therefore cannot be hacked. Only those in the group will see messages and see telephone numbers. Mr Coates is the only adult in the group (excepting senior choir members aged 18+, if applicable). As a result, we ask parents to ensure they monitor their childs phone as an extra level of protection for both their child, and Mr Coates.
Why do we do this? For us, an important factor in choir is the accesibility to adults. It was born from an incident once when a child walking home from choir by themselves found themselves in a bit of trouble and needed an adult. They had no way of contacting any adults and ended up ringing another choir member who they knew was still with the adults. So we agreed that the risks of a WhatsApp group, and ultimately the access to an adult, were far outweighed by the protection that can be offered, provided sufficient safeguarding measures are in place. It’s out job as the adults to protect the children and be available to them whenever they really need us.
Why WhatsApp?
Arguably, we can do this in google classroom, but with children at different schools, we use different classrooms and it can be hard to keep on top of each of them and check notifications. WhatsApp is a modern form of digital communication used by children, and is easily accessible by everyone, without discrimination.
2319 or White Sock Situations – Those of you familiar with the film Monsters Inc will understand these references. If a child has a personal issue that they need to discuss urgently and privately, then they are told to write 2319 or White Sock in the WhatsApp group. This lets the adult know that there is an urgent situation to deal with, and is the only time an adult will contact a child directly. That adult could be any of the volunteers, depending on the nature of the problem, and contact will only be made by phone call. The incident will then be logged on our register of concern for formal records. This is the only instance where an adult will contact a child directly, as opposed to through the group. Using this phrase is serious situation, and the children are made aware it is not to be abused.