Pupils from St Augustine’s and St Gerard’s Primary Schools, Middlesbrough, are no strangers to the Cathedral, attending regular family Masses, Mass on holy days, and marking important moments of the school and liturgical year there. However, the morning mass on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul was a little special: the children of the two schools joined together to form a choir of around 300 to lead the rest of the congregation in the musical parts of the Mass. As well as leading the four hymns, including two specifically for the Feast, they sang the Mass Ordinary to the Lourdes setting, the responsorial psalm, gospel acclamation, and even sang a motet during the distribution of communion, “I am the bread of life”.

Diocesan Director of Music, Steven Maxson, said:

“It is always wonderful to hear children singing, particularly so in our churches and in the cathedral. What was particularly wonderful on this occasion, though, was that this was whole year groups singing, including every child, having learnt the music as part of the National Schools Singing Programme in their schools. There was no rehearsal on the day, all of the work had been done in the schools in advance with our Diocesan Choral Director, Andrea Maxson.”

The National Schools Singing Programme is an initiative building upon the successful singing programme in the neighbouring Diocese of Leeds, and now either in operation or soon to be so in every Catholic Diocese across England and Wales. Within the Diocese of Middlesbrough, approximately 1,300 primary school children receive singing sessions from Diocesan music staff every week. The sessions cover a very wide repertoire – both sacred and secular – with music composed 1,000 years ago, and music composed this year, from around the world. The programme also teaches the elements of music and musical notation through singing, covering most of the national curriculum for Music and supporting the Government’s National Plan for Music Education.

The Diocese of Middlesbrough plans to expand its Programme sustainably across the Diocese in the coming years.