A song performed by students with additional support needs has given them the opportunity to express their feelings about lockdown.
The learners, numbering almost two dozen, from New College Lanarkshire have named the collective Virtually Here and have recorded a video to accompany the track, called Feeling Lost.
The main vocals are provided by college lecturer Alison Holmes but the students not only add their voices to the production but they also use Makaton in the video, a type of sign language that was thrown into the spotlight two years ago in March when 50 mums and 50 children used it in a carpool karaoke video, marking World Down’s Syndrome Day, which went viral.
Feeling Lost is set to go out on streaming services such as Spotify and can also be listened to via Alexa.
Kiera Ward from Wishaw is a lecturer in the college’s supported learning department.
She said: “Myself and my colleague have a class on a Friday afternoon, Alison is very musical and we thought ‘Why don’t we get the students to do a song on lockdown?’
“They have a range of additional support needs and we had them on a Friday for a few weeks and we were asking them how they were feeling about lockdown and what words they associated with it. Alison wrote the song using the words that the students came up with.
“Then for a few weeks we were singing it with the students and they used Makaton. Then they were sending us in videos of them performing it.”
Virtually Here is made up from students on three New College Lanarkshire courses, Raising your Potential, Towards Independence, and Ready for Volunteering.
“The students have worked so hard on it. They were absolutely buzzing,” said Kiera.
“We’ve been working on it for a few months now but I still can’t watch it without crying.
“Alison sings the main vocals, I sing the chorus with her, and Stefan Connor – who is also a lecturer in the department – helped out with recording and mixing, and added some guitar and stuff on it.
“We’ve had a good response already and we want to get it out there and let people hear it.”
Feeling Lost by Virtually Here is available on streaming services and the video can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=2AWuNpiXch8
