A PROJECT that seeks to bring together faith and science has launched a programme using song to help primary-school children to make the connection.

Creation Sings, devised by the God and the Big Bang team at St John’s College, Durham, to explore and celebrate God’s creation, was introduced in March. It has already run sessions at two schools in Stoke on Trent and one in Exeter.

“The response has been great,” the project manager, Sarah Moring, said. “It’s been really good to see the children interacting — not just with the science, but the music as well, seeing what they have learned about in a different way through the songs, expressing themselves, and having a bit of fun with it.”

Schools are visited for a day by scientists who are also religious believers. In the morning, they hold interactive workships for small groups of children on topics ranging from creation, evolution, and the Big Bang to climate change and artificial intelligence. In the afternoon, they come together with musicians, who teach the children four specially written songs on key science-faith themes.

“They are contemporary, with a strong theological and scientific underpinning, celebrating the discoveries of science and the mystery of unanswered questions,” Ms Moring said. “It’s quite amazing how quickly they pick them up.”

At the end of the school day, parents and members of the congregation from their local church come in to hear the children sing the songs and talk about what they have learned. “It’s a real celebration, with church and school and family together,” she said.

The head teacher of Silverton C of E Primary School, near Exeter, Gill Adnams, said: “The children came back to school buzzing with enthusiasm about Creation Sings. It has really ignited their thinking and challenged them to explore what they believe about science and faith.”