Basingstoke pupils take on signing world record (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Basingstoke pupils take on signing world record

5:00pm Thursday 6th September 2012 in Local By Emily Roberts, Chief Reporter

BASINGSTOKE schoolchildren helped to set a new Guinness world record when they took part in a mass singing and signing event.

The youngsters from Park View Infant School, in Pinkerton Road, South Ham, and Kempshott Infant School, in Homestead Road, were part of a group of 114,277 other pupils and teachers in Great Britain, who joined the SignHealth record breaker back in February.

Guinness World Records has now confirmed that the attempt did set a new record for singing and signing.

Steve Powell, chief executive of SignHealth, a charity for deaf people, said: “We are delighted to have broken the world record for the second year running and we are going to try and beat it again next year.

“We organised the sign2sing event to help raise awareness of deafness and the work we do at SignHealth.

“It was also a fundraiser for the charity through sponsorship from businesses and a voluntary donation from everyone taking part.”

More than 550 children from Basingstoke took part and raised £77.80 for the charity.

Mr Powell added: “We’re extremely grateful as all of the money raised will make a significant contribution to the work of the charity.”

Schools taking part in the event sang an especially composed song written by Garry Slack, author of the Sign with Olli books, and the music was composed by Paul Fairey, who has written various theme tunes for television and radio.