Children’s choir at our parish church

The area between Brixton, Camberwell and Kennington, south London, where our parish church is situation, is one of Britain’s toughest places to grow up. Two teenagers were killed in summer 2018 – one shot, one stabbed – by members of rival gangs, next to our church primary school. Child poverty in these postcodes is high It is also Ground Zero of the Windrush scandal; many locals are descended from Caribbean and African migrants, and live in constant fear of family members being detained by the immigration services.

Many of our school pupils are encouraged to join our parish children’s choir, without needing to have a faith. They receive free and expert tuition in a part of London with almost no free arts provision. Our parish church sees music as an agent of change, improving life chances, academic engagement, broadening horizons, and ultimately relieving poverty and creating social mobility. The children’s choirs attend residentials in a Cambridge college every summer, frequently perform in concerts as well as church services, and a number of choir members have gone on to choral scholarships. We have had children leave us to join the Westminster Abbey Choir, Chapel Royal choir and more.