Gallions Music Trust (GMT) improves the lives and life chances of some of the most disadvantaged children in the UK through the power of music. The direct work is run by Gallions Primary School (Gallions), but we hope to offer music to the wider community in time. Gallions is the local school for the Winsor Park Estate, one of the poorest areas in Newham, London, consisting of 95% social housing. The school has a diverse ethnic intake with over 60 different languages,87% of the children come from homes where English is not the first language and a large number of our children are from refugee families. It would normally be expected, with this demographic, that pupils attending Gallions should have educational achievements below the national average. Thanks to the dedicated work of the teachers and the investment in music education, this is not the case. 

Gallions runs a programme in which each child learns a string instrument from the age of 6 to 11. This has many benefits for them - huge discipline is required, and concentration and coordination are developed as several different areas of the brain are used simultaneously. There are extra music groups and concerts each term for every child to showcase their hard work. Recent performances (before the pandemic) included performances at the Royal Albert Hall and the Tower of London.

It is challenging to attribute outcomes directly to the programme, given that we don’t have a control group of students to compare with our pupils. However, we know that it has a direct impact on the school careers of our leavers. Whilst we cannot attribute all our success directly to the music programme, we know that the time invested in making music is repaid both in terms of the children's ability to concentrate and in their enjoyment of school.