Crescendo expands to four new schools

In January-March 2026, we are piloting the extension of our flagship Crescendo programme into four new schools in Belfast: Glenwood Primary School, Forth River Primary School, Christ the Redeemer Primary School and St Kieran’s Primary School.

This allows us to reach over 500 more children through whole-class instrumental learning in P7, whole-class musicianship in P3, and music workshops in SEN (Special Educational Needs) classes.

This exciting scale-up is made possible with funding from the Department for Communities, with thanks to our partners Colin Neighbourhood Partnership, Shankill Children’s Zone, and Queen’s University Belfast for their continued support.

The Crescendo project already delivers musicianship and instrumental lessons to over 1,000 P1-P7 children across four primary schools in North and West Belfast – Malvern Primary School, Wheatfield Primary School, Holy Evangelists’ Primary School and The Good Shepherd Primary School – and is supported by the Northern Ireland Executive Office, Department for Communities, Urban Villages, Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC), A&O Shearman and the Irish Department for Foreign Affairs.

The project aims to increase the resilience, aspirations and emotional development of children from areas of social and economic disadvantage through a programme of music skills development, increasing pupils’ musical skills and their readiness to learn, enhancing their Social and Emotional Learning and contributing to their improved wellbeing and self-worth.

Find out more about Crescendo.