The Lake Poets helps schoolchildren write their own song about living in Sunderland

Year five pupils at Seaburn Dene worked for 10 weeks in music sessions with Marty Longstaff, otherwise known as The Lake Poets, and his fellow musician Beccy Young. The pair were approached for the project, organised by We Make Culture, by teacher Abbie Houston.

Over the weeks they got to know the nine and ten year-olds. They found out what was special to them and put their thoughts and feelings into a song called Wear All Together, which could become the school’s anthem.

The beautiful song contains poignant lines, such as: “Making coal and ships and glass, memories of the past; that helped to build our city by the sea.”

It has already been a hit when it was performed before the rest of the school in assembly.

Marty said: “Beccy and I have been part of this project since September. We were given a brief by Mrs Houston, the Year five teacher, to write the school a song to do with being from Seaburn.

“It’s mainly been about sharing skills about how to write a song.

“We’ve written a lot of songs over the years and played in various bands together. So it was great to share our skills with the young ones. They took to it brilliantly.

“We used their inspiration; what they love and what they think about being from Wearside to write the song. It’s about living in Seaburn and being near the beach.”

Beccy added: “It’s been really fun. I’ve never worked in a school before, so it’s been a new experience for me. The kids have been great.”

George Smith, 10, who was part of the project said: “It’s been really good learning the song. I did a song to help practise writing, ready to do the main song for the school. It’s really good.

“We wrote about things in our local area, Seaburn, the Bridges and the Stadium of Light.”

The song will be performed by the Lake Poets at the Peacock, High Street West at 2pm on Saturday, December 21. Call 511 1451 for more details.