Case studies › Bourne Primary School
Building music into school life at Bourne Primary School
What began as a one-term pilot in 2025 is now in its third school year: small-group lessons for children with SEND, a lunchtime choir, and classroom singing that builds teachers' confidence.
School partnership · Long-termBourne Primary School, Eastbourne · 2025 to now
What we did
Future Sounds first met Bourne Primary School in early 2025 and proposed a short pilot. From April 2025 three services ran side by side, all fully funded by Beautiful Noise. Seedlings gives children with SEND weekly stringed-instrument lessons in small groups, taught by a tutor from Red Butler Music School. Singers is a lunchtime choir, led by a specialist vocal tutor. In Music Boost, the same vocal tutor works alongside class teachers in their curriculum music lessons. After a review with the school in June 2025 all three continued. Music Boost moved to Key Stage 1 at the school's request, then from spring 2026 added Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 classes, some of whom had had no music lessons since the autumn. Seedlings grew during 2025/26 from four children to eight or nine. In 2026/27 Music Boost runs three weekly sessions.
Why
The school wanted more music for every pupil and particular support for children with SEND. Music Boost is designed to leave something behind: teachers who feel more confident teaching music themselves. Bourne has a diverse, multilingual community, and singing together is an easy way in for children whatever their first language.
Impact
Seedlings pupils have attended consistently, and their tutor has reported real enthusiasm, good progress and children encouraging each other. The group grew from four children at the start of 2025/26 to eight or nine by the spring. The lunchtime choir often ran at or near capacity, with demand spreading by word of mouth; about 20 children came to the first session of 2026/27. Choir members have written and performed their own songs and raps, and their tutor has recorded growing confidence in solos, volume and pitch. In Music Boost, a class teacher reported feeling more confident teaching music, and said children kept building on what they had learned between sessions. Pupils have retained musical vocabulary (pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm) across terms, and shy children have come out of their shells in smaller groups.