Staff at a Fife school keep pupils smiling during lockdown with uplifting video

Class teachers, principal and learning support teachers, managerial and office staff all feature in the humorous video which shows them singing, ‘playing guitars’ and dancing - using various props - along to the popular Queen hit ‘I Want To Break Free’ – with all the clips brought together through the power of editing.

Claire Keith, who teaches primary six pupils at the school, came up with the idea.

She said: “I wanted to bring a smile to people’s faces with this video. We are trying to teach online just now but a lot of it is just words on a screen so the idea was to show faces and let the kids see everyone they are used to seeing every single day.

“There have been a few schools posting videos for pupils, just silly little videos or ones with messages and we discussed what we could do as a staff. We like to do things that are a bit silly and out there so we agreed on a song that would suit for the current circumstances, so we went for I want to break free.

“Everyone was then given a line or a part in the song and they came up with their own little thing that they wanted to do.

“It worked really well. When I was editing it together I thought it was really amazing, given the fact there wasn’t a lot of detailed planning put into it. We just agreed to be silly and do something that would bring a bit of positivity during this dark time for the kids.”

Claire explained that she wanted to do something to lift everyone’s spirits following the news that Kirkcaldy nurse Shannon Napier, who was a former pupil at Fair Isle Primary, had passed away.

She said everyone was feeling a bit down after hearing about Shannon, so she put the idea out there at the start of the week to see if she could try and cheer people up a little bit.

“I then got videos sent to me from staff over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and I put it all together yesterday (Thursday) so it was a quick turnaround. It took me about an hour and a half to edit it but it all came together really well.”

Claire added: “The feedback has been amazing. Parents have said the kids have all been giggling away at it. On our teams app the pupils have been saying they love it and that they were missing everyone as a result of watching it.

“A lot of the teachers had said to me that they were really stepping out their comfort zone and probably wouldn’t normally like to go in front of a camera and be silly, but the sole reason they were doing it was to put a smile on the kids’ faces and afterwards, they were absolutely delighted with it.”

While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you. In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you - wherever possible and providing it is safe for you to do so - to also please purchase a copy of our newspapers; the Fife Free Press, Fife Herald, St Andrews Citizen, East Fife Mail and Glenrothes Gazette.

Inevitably falling advertising revenues will start to have an impact on local newspapers and the way we continue to work during this period of uncertainty.

The support of our readers has never been more important as we try to make sure that we keep you connected with your community during this time. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. We need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Our team of trusted reporters are working incredibly hard behind the scenes - from kitchen tables and spare bedrooms - to look at how we can do this, and your continued support of our newspapers across Fife will help to protect their viability in the days and weeks ahead.

For more details on our subscription offers please visit email [email protected] or call us on 0330 4033004

Thank you

Allan Crow, Editor, Fife Free Press