In advance of this year’s Education Sunday (14 September 2025), in addition to promoting the Catholic Education Service (of which Bishop Marcus is the national Chairman), the Catholic Union of Great Britain also featured the following short but powerful news article on Music Education from Benjamin Saunders, our Diocesan Director of Music and Lead Consultant for the National Schools Singing Programme:
‘It is an abdication of responsibility simply to blame “the government of the day” for the paucity of music in many UK state schools. For generations, we – the Catholic Church – have been a patron of the arts, a leader in education and champion of the poor. A musical partnership between dioceses and schools can create something that is both value for money and valued in a shared mission.
Our schools share in the task of evangelisation: quenching that thirst in every human soul for beauty, truth and goodness which is never more powerful than when we reach together for the transcendent in sacred song.
I lead the National Schools Singing Programme, which was created in 2021 by a transformative grant of £4.9m from the Vinehill Trust to share the UK’s preeminent choral tradition with thousands of children in state schools across the country. Based on a model originated, developed and refined in the Diocese of Leeds over two decades, we provide all Catholic dioceses with seed funding and the ‘know-how’ to begin their own Schools Singing Programmes.
Under the patronage of Sir John Rutter, we engage 37,000 children in 425 schools across 35 UK dioceses and cathedrals in whole-class curriculum singing and after-school choirs each week. To carry out this work we have created more than 70 full-time Choral Director roles. Our focus is on excellence in classroom delivery, especially in marginalised communities, with clear musical transition routes for boys and girls from ages 7 to 18.
Taking singing in faith schools seriously provides children from diverse backgrounds with a chance to excel together in a communal cultural activity, uniting in song, deepening their Catholic faith, and encountering beauty and joy in a world that can often seem devoid of both.’
Benjamin Saunders, Diocese of Leeds Director of Music and Lead Consultant for the National Schools Singing Programme
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Find out more by visiting the National Schools Singing Programme (NSSP) website!
The NSSP is based on the model of our own Diocese of Leeds Schools Singing Programme which since 2003 has used the Catholic Church’s treasury of sacred music to inspire in young people – and their families – a greater understanding and love of the Faith. Through the Diocesan SSP, our choirs of children and young people from not only Leeds Cathedral, but also from parishes and Catholic Academy Trusts across our whole Diocese, now evangelise the nation as the most-broadcast Catholic choirs on national BBC TV and Radio programmes.
Bishop Marcus describes the Schools Singing Programme as:
‘One of the most effective forms of evangelisation I have seen and experienced…’
Please consider making a donation to support our own Diocesan SSP!
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