Diocese joins the National Schools Singing Programme

The Diocese of East Anglia will be joining the National Schools Singing Programme from September this year, thanks to the generous support of the Hamish Ogston Foundation, offering curricular time weekly music sessions in schools.

Daniel Justin, Diocesan Director of Music, said: “we are so grateful for all the hard work done by the National Schools Singing Programme, which has allowed us the amazing opportunity of bringing sacred music to schools throughout the Diocese. Neither music nor the gospel discriminate! We hope that offering weekly sessions in schools will allow those who would otherwise have no access to musical education the chance to find their voice.”

The Diocese is looking to recruit a full-time Choral Director from June this year, who will be responsible for the delivery of weekly sessions in schools, establishing regional after-school choirs, and working as Director of the Song School at Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs, Cambridge, directing the Junior and Youth choirs there.

Click here for the Application Pack and here for the Application Form.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday March 30.

The first phase of the programme rollout will see coverage of schools in Norfolk, with the hope that all the schools in the Diocese will be offered the chance to join the programme by 2024.

Bishop Alan Hopes said: “The Diocese of East Anglia is very excited to become a part of the National Schools Singing Programme, which will place Sacred Music in a prominent position for education and evangelisation across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. I am grateful to the generous support of the Hamish Ogston Foundation, which will allow children in schools across the Diocese to access a high standard of music education.

“As well as beginning work in the existing schools across the Diocese, we are opening the first state-funded Catholic school in England for more than ten years, in Peterborough, and the National Schools Singing Programme will ensure that music will be an essential part of this brand new school from the moment its doors open. My thanks and prayers for all those whose dedication to evangelisation have made this opportunity a reality for the Church in East Anglia.”

Find out more about the National Schools Singing Programme

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