Aurora Orchestra announces free access for all schools to online learning platform Aurora Classroom
Plus launch of additional new KS2 unit Stories in Sound
Marking its 20th anniversary this month, Aurora Orchestra today announces its online learning platform, Aurora Classroom, will be free to all schools from this term. Aurora today also releases Stories in Sound, a new unit of work for KS2, and grows to include materials for KS3, 4 and 5; as a result, Aurora Classroom now supports music education across the entire 3-18 age range for free.
Launched in 2022 in response to the much-publicised decline in music education in schools, Aurora Classroom provides both specialist and generalist teachers with theresources and the confidence they need to deliver inspiring curriculum-based music education in the classroom.
Written by Aurora’s award-winning creative team and experienced teachers, Stories in Sound is a KS2 unit which builds on the learning of the three existing units for primary and SEND settings. With a focus on composing and storytelling, this unit takes inspiration from Aurora’s orchestral theatre production of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and invites children to create their own compositions inspired by stories, as well as explore singing and develop their understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music.
Throughout the 10-week unit, children encounter music from Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique through a newly commissioned story from writer Kate Wakeling called Some Other World, which is told through a graphic novel-style animation. Watch the film here.
Teachers and subject leaders have the option to build their own sequences of lessons from the extensive Activity and Audio Libraries to meet the needs of their pupils. This unit also provides an opportunity for children to play part of the symphony using our bespoke ‘flex-ensemble’ arrangements of the third movement, and to share their learning at home with the Music at Home section.
Jane Mitchell, Creative Director, Aurora Orchestra, says: “At Aurora we believe passionately that every child should experience and participate in music as part of their education, and we are committed to supporting the thousands of teachers who work so hard to deliver music education in primary schools across the country. By opening up Aurora Classroom for free to all schools we hope to bring the life-changing power of orchestral music into classrooms across the country, and to help teachers of all backgrounds – including those with no specialist musical training – to inspire children with high-quality musical activities.”
John Harte, Chief Executive, Aurora Orchestra, says: “A wealth of research confirms what every musician already knows: making music nurtures creativity, confidence, focus, and collaboration—skills we need now more than ever in an age of distraction. Yet music education in British primary schools is facing an urgent and deepening crisis. After decades of neglect and downgrading by successive governments, the situation worsened dramatically during the pandemic – when 68% of primary teachers reported cuts to music provision, and nearly 1 in 10 schools stopped teaching music altogether – and many schools have not yet recovered. These losses have hit disadvantaged children hardest. In 2023, 42% of schools did not enter any pupils for Music GCSE; furthermore, there were no entries from 70% of schools situated in communities with the highest levels of deprivation (Cultural Learning Alliance 2024). This decline undermines not only children’s emotional and academic development, but the long-term sustainability of the UK’s creative industries. Without urgent action, we risk losing a generation of young musicians—and making music a privilege, not a right.
Founded by its Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon, Aurora Orchestra gave its first public performance on 15 April 2005. Now, 20 years later, Aurora has cemented its position as one of the world’s most creative orchestras, renowned for its inventive programming which pushes the boundaries of traditional classical concerts and – through its award-winning Creative Learning programme - offering creative workshops and storytelling concerts for families, schools and young people.
Aurora Classroom builds on the success of Aurora’s award-winning live children’s concert series, Far, Far Away, which has delighted young children and their families for over a decade. Setting the music of individual composers to stories written by children’s author Kate Wakeling, the concerts are playful, immersive and imaginative, and include performances such as Tchaikovsky and the Magical Toy Box, Beethoven and the Dinosaurs, Mozart in the Garden, Mendelssohn and the Moving Machines and Mahler and the Mountain Adventure, which returns to Kings Place from Sunday 23 November – Saturday 6 December.
Further live events include a schools performance of Aurora’s 20th birthday project – a major collaboration with physical theatre company Frantic Assembly on a vibrant new production of Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals from memory at the Southbank Centre on Friday 2 May; and today Aurora also announces Meet the Instruments – a newly-created family concert adapted from songs and stories from the unit of the same name on Aurora Classroom at Southbank Centre on Sunday 28 September.
Aurora Classroom
Unit 1 – Aurora and the Magical Toy Box (for EYFS, KS1 and SEND settings)
Featuring music from Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker and an original story by children’s poet Kate Wakeling. Children are invited to step into a magical world of music and imagination through exploring characters and storytelling through music, singing, using classroom instruments, preparing their own performances and watching a performance by Aurora Orchestra.
Unit 2 - Meet the Instruments (for EYFS, KS1 and SEND settings)
Led by presenters Lara and Zara, pupils meet players of Aurora Orchestra as well as multi-instrumentalists Sidiki Dembélé and Aboubacar Donate who introduce children to the djembe and dundun. They are introduced to the instruments through specially-commissioned stories and songs by Kate Wakeling and internationally-acclaimed composer Iain Farrington. The activities extend beyond teaching musical skills and knowledge by also developing children’s wider literacy, movement and motor skills, and creativity.
Unit 3 – Discover Beethoven (for KS2 and older SEND settings)
With opportunities to sing, play classroom instruments, compose, and develop understanding of the interrelated dimensions of music, Unit 3 of Aurora Classroom provides an opportunity to develop instrumental playing through five specifically-composed arrangements by Iain Farrington of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony written for ‘whole class’ instrumental learning. A newly commissioned story by Kate Wakeling, A Day Like This, has been animated with illustrations by Annalisa Salis and threads Beethoven’s music through a charming story about Nate and his dog Luna as he navigates the emotions and experiences of a pre-teen boy.
Aurora Classroom is designed to support teachers with widely varying levels of experience, from expert practitioners to those with no background in music. The unique online platform provides built-in routes for non-specialists to build confidence and skills in teaching music, with options to use films to present activities, or to lead themselves accompanied by audio tracks. The platform offers teachers a detailed music curriculum, audio clips, support with putting on performances and a programme of teacher training aimed at providing support and creative ideas for leading music in the classroom, as well as establishing a network for practitioners to share their experiences, insights and suggestions.
All four Aurora Classroom units have been created in conjunction with teachers and meet and exceed the requirements of the national curriculum, Model Music Curriculum, EYFS statutory framework, and Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework.
Aurora Orchestra today also announces the launch of its Life-Changing Music Campaign, a new match-funding campaign that will aim to raise £500,000 across its 20th anniversary season. The campaign will invest in Aurora’s future: transforming the scale and reach of the orchestra’s work, expanding Aurora Classroom and safeguarding its existence for future generations. Find out more at auroraorchestra.com/donate.