Everyone has sung along to their favourite song at some point and now primary school Teacher, Charlotte Mellor, has turned it into a way for children to improve their grammar. Charlotte’s Now That’s What I Call Grammar! project is one of the 10 winning projects for 2016’s Let Teachers SHINE. We’ll be working with Charlotte to help more children get access to her fantastic programme, boosting confidence and ability in spelling and grammar.

An English Teacher at Littletown School in Liversedge, Charlotte aims to help children identify where they’re struggling with grammar and fix it through practice. With terminology that has been included in the new curriculum for grammar, Charlotte is using music to help students with their reading, writing and spoken language.

The pupils choose the terminology they are struggling most with and replace words in popular songs with it. This helps them memorise the terminology and understand the use of verbs, nouns or adjectives whilst having fun with songs. SHINE is helping Charlotte with resources for the students, who are from Key Stages 1 and 2, to help them record themselves. The children taking part in the project will also visit a recording studio, so they get the great experience of being a recording musician!

The recording equipment is not only fun for the students, it also aims to boost confidence, and over time help them listen to where they are making mistakes and improve the writing of their songs. By taking this unconventional approach to literacy, Now That’s What I Call Grammar! Will improve students’ grades. Charlotte would like to run the project both in class and as an after-school club, and will give pupils a CD of their recording to help them practice at home.

Children are already asking when they can use the new recording equipment and it’s great to see their enthusiasm. The reaction from parents has been positive too, with one parent reporting that the Justin Bieber song which her daughter changed the lyrics to is now being sung in their house all the time!

After this year, Charlotte would also like to implement the project to help children learn their timetables, maths or any of new scientific vocabulary now on curriculum. A local high school have already shown an interest in running the project, and Charlotte hopes that one day she can expand even further to have different schools take on the technique.

Charlotte was also interviewed by Capita Sims about her grammar project, which can be found in this blog. If you’d like to know more about our Let Teachers SHINE projects, please visit this page or see a full list of 2016’s winning projects here.