A specialist, Kodály-inspired music class for school-age children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2
When: Tuesdays and Fridays after school at 4.00-4.45pm and 4.45-5.30pm
Where: Harehills Lane Baptist Church (Side Entrance), 13 Hilton Place, Leeds LS8 4HE
Cost: £9.25 per child per session, booked in half termly blocks (20% sibling discount)
The Kodály approach comes to Leeds!
We are so excited to be offering Leeds families a dedicated Kodály-based after school and school holiday music class programme starting in July 2025! Kodály was a Hungarian ethnomusicologist and teacher, who believed singing was the best medium for teaching the language of music. Singing actively engages the whole person and develops that essential musical attribute, the inner hearing. Nowhere is this more important than at the early years stage.
Meet your teacher, Caitlin Mayall
Caitlin is a singer, harpist and accomplished pianist, who has worked in early years music for over 10 years. She has a Double First Class degree in music and Spanish, a PGCE and is one of few qualified Kodály music teachers in West Yorkshire. Her passions are folk and jazz, particularly composing her own original music. She loves circle work, space-holding and real, ‘come-as-you-are’ spaces which bring community together.
What happens in the session?
The class begins when we first hear music played and then is structured for around 40 minutes of singing games, movement, and playing instruments before a musical story at the end.
The structured part of the session starts and finishes with core frame of beautiful songs and rhymes, adapted with the seasons. This familiar structure and knowing what to expect in every class helps the children feel safe and held, which creates a nurturing space for the children to have fun, explore their voice and express themselves. During the main body of the lesson, for around 20 minutes, we will take the children through a musical learning journey, adapted with the seasons, linked to the National Curriculum and based on a step-by-step Kodály approach.
The aim of this musicianship class is to give your child the foundational skills and understanding of music which will enable them to progress onto instruments and music-reading later. Taught through singing, game-playing and movement, we guide your children through our Kodály-based curriculum which is child-led, but grounded in structure, repetition and the wisdom of generations of teachers.
Why we need these Early Years classes…
The quality of music education in many primary schools in the UK is at an all time low. Whilst all primary schools need to meet OFSTED criteria for music education, head teachers have faced such tough funding challenges over the last decade and do their best with the little funding they have available for music.
Some schools are fortunate to be able to buy in specialist teaching from local music services, but in many schools music is not taught by a specialist. Additionally, music services have seen funding cuts themselves and over the last ten years have generally only been able to offer unqualified teacher pay scales, meaning that the majority of music service teachers working as specialists in schools are not qualified teachers.
Having worked for 2 music services and as a qualified primary music teacher since graduating, Caitlin is one of the British Kodály Academy´s few officially qualified Kodály teachers in Yorkshire and the North East. Carolyn is one of the most experienced Early Years music teachers in Leeds, with ample training in Kodály methodology, having worked with Liverpool Philharmonic In Harmony Project and now working as a peripatetic teacher with Opera North. We are both keen to improve music education for primary-aged children in Leeds.
From September 2025 we are welcoming new children aged 4-7 into our Tuesday and Friday classes.
Information about the venue
Harehills Lane Baptist Church is accessible for wheelchair users and there are baby changing facilities. When you get to the church, come in through the side entrance on Hilton Place. There is plenty of free on street parking available. Cycle racks are also available immediately outside the side entrance should you wish to cycle.
The 91 bus from Kirkstall, Headingley, Meanwood and central Chapel Allerton stops just outside the church on Harehills Lane. Or if you are coming from Leeds City Centre, you can get bus numbers 12 or 13 to Harehills Post Office followed by a short 5 minute walk up to the church.
Accessibility and inclusivity in our Kodály music classes
We believe that music is for everybody. We welcome asylum seekers and refugees, non-English speakers, LGBT and queer families, foster and adoptive families, and those of all faiths and none. Please get in touch if you have any feedback for us about how we can improve our accessibility and inclusivity – we really want you to feel welcome and comfortable here.
You can also apply for a FREE or subsidised place if you meet our criteria. A friend or support worker can fill in the form for you if you are struggling, or you can email us and ask us to help you with the form as well.
Music at Heart 