Primary schools 'on song' with choir help from experts

Specialist leaders from Barnsley Youth Choir have been leading development sessions alongside school staff at four local primary schools which are part of Astrea Academy Trust – Carrfield Primary, Highgate Primary, Gooseacre Primary and The Hill Primary – to help them develop their school choirs.

Carrfield and Gooseacre have already worked intensively with the choir and gone on to showcase their musical talent with a special performance for their families.

Katie Adamski, principal at Carrfield Primary, which hosted the project’s inaugural session, said:

“This is an incredible project which has inspired staff and children to continually improve our singing in school and develop our choir.

“I believe that primary schoolchildren should have as much opportunity as possible to develop their musical skills but this does not happen without the help of experts so we are thrilled to be part of the Barnsley Youth Choir project.”

Charlie Brammer, project lead and Barnsley Youth Choir trustee, said: “This project developed after we had worked successfully with Astrea Academy Dearne, where we hold our regular East of the Borough rehearsals.

“Astrea Academy Trust are a perfect partner for us because their ambition to provide an excellent music education and access to high quality wider opportunities for pupils meant that this first-of-a-kind partnership was a natural progression from our work at Dearne.

“We have now been working with primary schoolchildren at Astrea since September and the project has been incredibly rewarding for all of us.

“We are driven by our desire to make music education a central part of each child’s experience at school and give them that valuable opportunity to perform.

“We are also always looking for new youth members in the area.”

Russell Gray, regional director of schools (primary) at Astrea Academy Trust, added: “This exciting project with Barnsley Youth Choir is not only helping our primaries to develop some outstanding musical talent and develop excellence in school singing but, just as importantly, it is giving children the chance to be inspired by music and singing and enjoy it.”