Chorley school children sign Christmas carols at concert in Preston

The primary pupils had learnt to sign Silent Night, Little Donkey and We Wish You a Merry Christmas for the occassion.

Deputy head at St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School in Chorley, Joanne Mollinauex, took the 36-strong choir to Integrate community centre to perform.

“Integrate was just having a Christmas Carol concert and we went along. The children sang and signed as well.

“It was so lovely because all the adults were signing with the children.

“It was great for the children to be with adults who actually use sign language.”

Joanne, who started the choir a year ago and taught herself to sign to songs from YouTube, had been inspired to start the school choir by the Liverpool Signing Choir.

She said: “The choir came about from me wanting to develop a signing choir. I just thought it was nice.

“We’ve got some children in the school who sign and we thought rather than a traditional choir it would be nice to sign. We have done a few concerts now.

“The children pick it up really well because now we have learnt quite a few songs so some of the signs are starting to make sense.

“We were saying how much easier it is learning sign language to a song.”