Appreciating music at a young age is an important step in a child's educational development, and the most accessible form of musical education for children is singing. Everyone can sing, although many lack the confidence to admit to it ! Furthermore, there is no better opportunity for singing in primary school, than at Christmas time, when the enjoyment of songs and singing can really come together. Some newly established music education resource companies have impressively risen to this challenge, by offering a well composed collection of primary school musical resources and songs Christmas has been waiting for. At a time when primary school headteachers are mindful of initiatives such as Artsmark, Every Child Matters and Eco-schools, singing and performing in schools become increasingly important.

The school play can be a stressful challenge for primary school teachers and so many turn instead to the school musical for inspiration. By transforming the school play into the school musical, teachers are then able to exploit children's enthusiasm for singing. Several dedicated music education companies now offer an easy solution to this problem for teachers with a wide range of resources. Hundreds of schools across the UK and overseas have staged successful performances of their related school musicals, providing a great educational opportunity for teachers.

Beyond the school musical and school play, music education resource companies also offer several collections of school assembly songs Christmas enthusiasts will love, responding to teachers' request for new, original songs for younger children, to use in the classroom and beyond. Related resources often explore the common questions that children have about Christmas. For example, who is Father Christmas, was there really a star, who was baby Jesus, why do we use candles, who invented the Christmas cracker ? At the same time, these resources celebrate the traditions and symbols of Christmas time, pointing to their origins.

The particular appeal of a limited number of music education resource companies to primary school teachers is that they may offer UK schools the unlimited right to publicly perform each purchased school musical or and school play without further royalty fees due to them. This is often limited to the public performance of each purchased work within the school and its local community only. I would strongly advise all schools to take advantage of this offer when it exists, because so many other publishers seem to require the payment of additional royalty fees for the public performance of school assembly or school musical resources, which often doubles the cost.

Music education resource companies offering a good range of sample scripts and audio song clips on the internet, help primary school teachers to decide on their next school assembly idea or school musical. CD recordings and booklets often include full backing tracks for each school presentation, and the booklets often include simplified sheet music, arranged for piano, guitar, or keyboard for those musically-able teachers wishing to provide an accompaniment. Purchasing schools are sometimes given free access to additional online resource files which they can download, save, print and copy. These songs Christmas really needs come from dedicated music education resource companies that care about the quality of its products.

Go for a company that delivers a fast and efficient service at competitive prices, showing its dedication to a high level of customer service, and also one that continually develops its range of school play and school musical materials. Most valuable, are those with a particular emphasis on primary school assembly resources, songs for teachers and a range of primary lesson plans.