From our year-long Music in the Classroom programme to one-off Creative Days, training opportunities for primary school teachers focus on developing confidence and strategies for using music creatively in the classroom.
Subscribe to our mailing list to be the first to hear any of our teacher opportunities
Subscribe to the mailing list
Music in the Classroom One-Year Programme
Are you looking to grow confident, creative music leaders in your school? Would your staff benefit from hands-on practical training with the London Symphony Orchestra?
Music in the Classroom is a transformative year-long CPD programme designed to develop and support primary teachers in London in delivering vibrant, high-quality classroom music. Teachers learn to facilitate inclusive student-led creative music. It is open to state primary schools – we are unable to offer places to independent schools.
The programme enables schools to develop music teachers and leaders on the job, supporting them in line with the OFSTED Inspection Framework. Schools, teachers and pupils build a relationship with the LSO over an extended period, with access to professional musicians, LSO resources, and project support throughout.
The course is designed for Key Stage 2 teachers and pupils, and open both to teachers new to leading music activity and experienced practitioners, regardless of musical or teaching experience.
We’ve seen staff grow in confidence, and children flourish through musical creativity. The yearlong support really makes a difference.
Participating Headteacher
What’s Included
- Three creative training projects, with visits from course leader Rachel Leach and LSO musicians
- Four project training sessions per term, with activity ideas and resources to use in the classroom
- Free places for staff on Creative Days, one-day CPD workshops
- Access for one class to an LSO Discovery KS2 Schools Concert with the full LSO at the Barbican
Cost: £450+VAT
We are open to discussing adapting the programme to the needs of individual schools, including flexibility about the payment schedule of programme fees, and discussion with schools who would experience financial barriers to participation.
Apply
Applications for Music in the Classroom are now open for the 2025/26 programme.
Download the information pack and application form below or more information, please contact:
Beth Kershaw LSO On Track Senior Projects Manager
beth.kershaw@lso.co.uk
‘The course has had a massive impact across the school. The children’s learning has been phenomenally improved. All classes are now composing, analysing music, playing instruments, collaborating and singing.’ – Waltham Forest Primary School Teacher
Creative Days for Teachers
LSO Discovery CPD Creative Days are workshops that inspire and equip teachers, and other staff leading music, with the skills and confidence to take a creative, hands-on approach to music-making in the classroom.
Suitable for practitioners at any stage of their career, regardless of musical background, the sessions support teachers in both mainstream and SEND settings.
Teachers can attend one or more sessions, with each workshop covering different key musical concepts; offering practical, creative approaches, supported by digital resources and are paired with an LSO concert.
Primary sessions led by LSO Animateur Rachel Leach, with LSO musicians
SEND sessions led by LSO Animateur Mark Withers, with LSO musicians
All sessions will take place at LSO St Luke’s unless otherwise stated.
Cost: £25+VAT per session, the cost includes a ticket to an LSO concert
To book, please contact Tara Ramoutar, Schools & Young People Co-ordinator tara.ramoutar@lso.co.uk
Creative Days
Thursday 15 January 2026, 1-3.30pm
Back to basics, musical storytelling: During this session, we will go back to the basics of classroom music making and explore how to create musical characters and create a story through music using the vivid Spanish music of Manuel de Falla’s Three Cornered Hat.
Thursday 26 February 2026, 3-5.30pm
Abstract music: Alban Berg had a very different and unique compositional style. His music was based on numbers, codes and systems. In this session, we will explore a totally different way of creating music with links to maths, using Berg’s Violin Concerto
Thursday 26 March 2026, 10am-3pm
Using music across the curriculum: We will look at how to incorporate music into different subjects and areas of school life. Using Bernstein’s West Side Story, we will explore how to listen to, write about and recreate the story at the heart of Bernstein’s music – Romeo and Juliet. With curriculum links to literacy (poetry and storytelling), drama, art, PSHE (relationships and wellbeing)
Wednesday 15 April 2026, 3-5.30pm
Rhythm: Another back-to-basics session looking at rhythm in the classroom using Shostakovich’s mighty Symphony No 5 as a catalyst. We will learn how to generate, layer and manipulate rhythms to create exciting, dramatic music. We will also tackle how to play and stay together rhythmically.
Thursday 14 May 2026, 1-5.30pm
An opera day: How to write simple songs and stage them. Opera is the most collaborative art form encompassing writing, storytelling, movement, drama, art, singing, instruments. In this session we will look at how to create opera in the classroom using a series of fun, hands on activities, using Strauss’s Rosenkavalier, this session is led by both Rachel Leach and writer/ director/ educator Tim Yealland MBE.
Wednesday 10 June 2026, 1-5.30pm
Manipulating melody: How to invent and use melody descriptively. Elgar’s Enigma Variations takes one simple tune and manipulates it into 14 musical pictures describing Elgar’s friends, family members, pupils, a house and even a dog! In this session we will learn a simple, adaptable method that can be used to turn any stimulus into music.
Wednesday 1 July, 10am-3pm
Digital Resources: Explore our new digital resources based on Holst’s epic The Planets featuring composing, listening and cross curricular activities that can be adapted for all key stages alongside a stunning new performance of the full work
Times subject to change
SEND Creative Days
Thursday 6 November 2025, 1.30-5.30pm (venue tbc)
Fantastic Music: The building blocks of music. Pulse, Pitch, and Dynamics are the central elements of music. Combine these with the inspiration of Hector Berlioz’s remarkable Symphonie Fantastique to create your own work in the classroom.
Tuesday 13 January 2026, 1.30-5.30pm
A Galaxy of Sound: Exploring musical instruments. Instruments can be key to a child expressing themselves through music. In this session, we will look at ways to enjoy instruments to the full. Musical inspiration comes from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
Wednesday 20 May 2026, 1.30-5.30pm
Storytelling: Structuring musical ideas together to make stories in music. further details tbc
Times subject to change
Teacher Advisory Group
We are recruiting members for our Teacher Advisory Group. This group will play a key role in shaping and strengthening our schools and education offer, ensuring that all our programmes create the greatest possible impact both inside and outside the classroom, guided by the expertise and voices of those working in education. We are recruiting for Primary, Secondary, and SEND groups, and no prior music training is required. The group will meet twice in person, in the Spring and Summer terms in 2026.
Apply
Applications for our Teacher Advisory Group are now open for the 2025/26 programme.
Download the Expression of Interest form below, or for more information, please contact:
Adam Grady Schools Programme Manager
adam.grady@lso.co.uk
This project is generously supported by the Innholders’ Charitable Foundation, Tallow Chandlers Benevolent Fund and Pewterers’ Seahorse Trust.
