We were set up in 1990, using Church Urban Fund funding. Our aim is to promote excellence in music-making even though we don't audition. We believe every child is good at something, whether it's singing or drumming, or maybe art or movement when we can offer them. Our ethos is to praise every child at every opportunity. We use a minimum of discipline, just ensuring that no child is prevented from full participation through another's disruptive behaviour. The emphasis is on enthusiastically working together and joining in.

We reflect the ethnic and social diversity of the local community. Our members are about two-thirds from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds; primarily Black African-Caribbean, Black African and mixed race, but also Asian and Chinese. A majority live in social housing, including on estates which have high levels of gang activity and anti-social behaviour. A significant number come from lone parent households. About ten per cent have a disability, including learning difficulties, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, asthma, severe allergies and autistic spectrum disorder. We also seek to ensure our Management Committee reflects the diversity of our local community and enables parents to play a full part in leading the project.

 

Funding

CCS is a charity, and we receive grants from trusts and other funding bodies, as well as from individuals.

We keep our subscriptions at £1 per week per child for everything. If even this would be a significant part of a family's income, for example, where several children from the family attend, we will reduce or waive fees to ensure no-one is excluded.

We would also like to encourage regular donations through our friends scheme.

 

Our Patron

We're proud to have as our patron world-famous bass-baritone Sir Willard White who has supported us by singing for us to help with our fundraising, as well as visiting the project and meeting the children, to whom he is an inspiration.

At our end of term show last December, Sir Willard said:

"This type of participation - singing, dancing, playing music - teaches joining in, uninhibited - it's what builds your confidence. That's the reason I give my support..."

 

Our policies

We have policies on

·  Child Protection

·  Health and Safety

·  Data Protection

We also welcome children with disabilities, for whom reasonable adjustments will be made.

We have a comprehensive child protection policy and trustees, management committee, staff and regular volunteers all undergo enhanced CRB checks.

so everyone can be sure they are safe while they are with us.

We collect information on children's medical needs, e.g. allergies, so we can meet any first aid needs, as well as making any reasonable adjustments needed by disabled children.

And just in case something unforeseen does happen, we have specialist public and employers' (including both paid staff and volunteers) liability insurance.

Our Equal Opportunities policy is very important to us. We want to make sure that everyone who comes into contact with us is treated fairly and has the maximum opportunity to flourish. We aim to promote equality of opportunity whatever a person's gender; race, ethnicity or nationality; disability; religious or non-religious belief or lack of it; sexual orientation; or age-although we do differentiate our groups by age range, like most educational establishments. This belief in fundamental equality and the right to fair treatment applies to CCS members, their family members or carers, to staff, volunteers, trustees and management committee members, job applicants, and anyone else we come into contact with or provide services to. We make reasonable adjustments to ensure accessibility for disabled people.

 

How we are managed

We have 4 Trustees, who are the Vicar and Churchwardens of St Giles Church, Camberwell .

Day-to-day decisions on the running of the Choir School are made by our Management Committee. This is made up of CCS parents, parents of former pupils, some staff and volunteers and other local people who support CCS's aims. The Committee meets at least twice a term to plan the Choir School's activities, make sure everything is running smoothly, and to co-ordinate fund-raising activities. See Who's who for more details.

We welcome and invite regular feedback from our children and young people, their parents and carers.

We are always keen to improve our links with the local community, with schools, nurseries, and other appropriate organisations. If you'd like to talk to us about publicising our activities to your users, or our performing at your event, or coming and running a special workshop for you, then please contact us .

 

Why we believe music is so important

There is a significant body of evidence about the benefits of music teaching. When we were first established, there was little recognition of this, and music had virtually disappeared from local schools' curriculums. Now it has come back, which we applaud; however, we believe we still have much to offer.

In particular, we are working on structured activities in small groups of up to 20 (larger groups are split between staff for part of the session) with closer adult involvement than is possible in school. There is greater scope for individual creativity than in the classroom. All our children and young people are with us because they want to be, so there is no issue over discipline or boredom. What we do is driven by the children and young people themselves and their parents, in a way that is not possible in a school setting where a curriculum must be followed (though we do keep in mind the national curriculum and key stage approach; we also subscribe to the approach of Every Child Matters . At the end of every term, we put on a show, so every child receives regular positive feedback and applause, with a real sense of achievement-this also is unusual in a school setting. And our atmosphere is totally unlike school!

The low cost of group sessions (and our flexible attitude to charges) puts us in reach of every child. We also loan instruments to our members to make these instruments accessible. While we would not claim to be drawing in young people who are already being involved in anti-social behaviour, we believe that by giving our children confidence and skills which stay with them for life, together with positive interaction with adults, we may help them to resist negative pressures in the future.

Further reading on music and its contribution to wider achievement:

·   BBC Parents' Music Room-Why Music Matters

·   Baroness Warnock on learning an instrument

·   What the education department says

See also

·   IPPR research on the benefit of young people's involvement in structured activity and positive interaction with adults