CHILDREN from schools all over Swindon sung their hearts out yesterday to try to beat a world record.

Pupils at Shaw Ridge Primary School, Beechcroft Infant School in Stratton, Lainesmead Primary School in Walcot, Seven Fields Primary School in Penhill and Central Pre-school in Emlyn Square all took part in the sign2sing challenge to beat the world record for the number of children signing and singing at once.

The challenge was to beat the Guiness World Record of 116,980 children and adults singing and signing the same song at the same time across multiple locations.

The song was written by the sign2sing fundraising initiative, which raises money for SignHealth, which supports vulnerable deaf children and adults, and at 2.30pm across Swindon young voices could be heard singing along while signing it.

At Lainesmead alone, 187 pupils took part in the challenge Maria Brown, Year 5 and 6 teacher at Lainesmead and drama and performing arts co-ordinator said it was a great success.

She said: “We had been practising for about a week and they all picked it up really quickly and the children really enjoyed it. They have been singing it before class and in the corridors.

“We have a number of deaf and hearing impaired children in school and we thought it would be a nice thing to do. It was also a good opportunity to get the children up and signing and learning about sign language.”

The school also raised around £150 for the sign2sing initiative after every child brought a pound into school.

Now in its fourth year, sign2sing has become a major national fundraising initiative involving over 300,000 primary school children and adults in over 1,000 schools in the UK and abroad.

To find out more about sign2sing, visit www.sign2sing.org.uk.