Where music meets learning with Song Pals
Song Pals is a new Pre-Primary course created in collaboration with Super Simple songs, designed to make learning English fun, musical, and engaging for young learners in Spain. Launched in early 2025, the course brings together Super Simple’s catchy songs and characters with our expertise.
Built with extensive teacher input, Song Pals offers age-appropriate topics, flexible teaching pathways, and a wide range of resources to support diverse classroom needs.
We spoke to Louise Philip, ELT & CLIL Primary Product Manager, and Celia Garcia, Assistant Product Manager, about the creation of the course.
What specific needs or challenges did teachers express that led us to rethink traditional Pre-Primary course formats?
We did extensive market research, including classroom observations in several regions in Spain, interviews and an in-person focus group in Madrid with teachers using both course books and their own material. We discovered that all teachers shared similar challenges and had similar needs. What stood out most was that all teachers wanted flexibility—to choose topics in the order they wanted, and to be able to teach what they wanted in any order.
Also, many teachers told us that the pre-primary context is becoming increasingly fragmented: rotating teachers, very limited timetables, and the need to align with Spanish-language content, which leaves little room for more traditional, linear ELT courses.
How are children responding to Song Pals, especially the music-based learning approach?
Teachers told us how much their students already loved Super Simple’s songs and characters, and they were used to using the songs in class to present and practice language. Children are also fascinated with the Noodle puppet which helps bring Song Pals to life!
In your view, what makes Song Pals unique—either in terms of pedagogy, format, or its collaboration with Super Simple?
There are so many things that make it unique! The fact that the topics are a result of teacher collaboration, the Fun Book format which really engaged students and teachers, the iterative content added termly to the Song Pals website to ensure engagement, and, of course, the fantastic songs. Song Pals also includes customizable resources and innovative and digitized stories designed to interact directly with all the content in the pages.
Celia Garcia, Assistant Product Manager
What were the biggest considerations in balancing pedagogical integrity with flexibility?
We worked extensively to ensure that Song Pals aligns with local educational legislation while still providing the flexibility that teachers need. The Song Pals stories strand (available with Super Fun Books) have themes relating to social and emotional development through the Song Pals characters, which is an important area within the Spanish curriculum. We also ensured that each topic includes a wide range of graded resources in multiple formats, with clearly mapped targets and extension language. Many of these materials are even customizable. The goal was to give teachers everything they need in one place, so they don’t have to search for additional resources or spend extra time adapting materials.
We also provide learning situations, assessment material, and a Teacher’s Toolkit with teaching notes and a guide to make the most of the materials.
What was the rationale behind developing three different product formats?
The Pre-Primary market varies in terms of timetables across regions and school types, from one session a week to five, and in methodology, with some teachers requiring more extensive print formats for students and others requiring less so that they can also use their own resources in class. We also detected a need for a resource bank, leading to the creation of the Simple and Super Fun Books and the website-only option.
Louise Philip, ELT & CLIL Primary Product Manager
Find out more about Song Pals here.
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