At Stonyhurst, the centre of our partnership work is singing. Our flagship choir, Schola Petri, has exchange programmes with St Edward’s College, Liverpool and Ripley St Thomas CE Academy, Lancaster, singing joint services as a home/away fixture block annually.
This enables our pupils to experience two centres of excellence for singing in the state sector, but also gives access to the facilities and venues at Stonyhurst for pupils from these schools. Even for those who know Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Lancaster Priory well, Stonyhurst has a wow factor!
Stonyhurst is also the pioneer school hub for the National Schools’ Singing Programme, having successfully bid for seed funding in early 2022. The other funding holders are Catholic dioceses, and we are working to demonstrate a pathway which other schools, and perhaps other institutions, might follow in the future.
Our first full-time Choral Director joined us in September, and he is now delivering sessions to over 400 primary school pupils and over 80 secondary school pupils every week of term. We are looking forward to a continuing expansion into the second year of the project.
