The Grammy winner also sat in on music lessons and hosted a Q&A with students at Fairlight Primary and Nursery School

Ed Sheeran at the Grammys in Los Angeles in February 2024. Photo: Lionel Hahn/Getty

Ed Sheeran wants to inspire young musicians.

The Grammy-winning superstar, 33, paid a surprise visit to Fairlight Primary School in Brighton, U.K., on May 10 to perform for students, sit in on music lessons, participate in Q&As and donate five of his guitars.

During the visit — organized with Create Music, which works to provide arts education to musicians of all ages — Sheeran delivered live renditions of hits including “Shape of You,” “Perfect” and “Bad Habits.”

Ed Sheeran at the Met Gala in New York City on May 6, 2024.Jamie McCarthy/Getty

“Ed Sheeran coming to Fairlight Primary School isn’t an everyday thing, despite me claiming he was one of my celebrity mates! He was amazing with everyone he met — interested in them, chatting to them and he was very humble,” said the school’s headteacher, Damien Jordan, in a statement.

“He took time to listen to the children and encourage them. He told us how he struggled at school but how music helped him and encouraged him and how he now wanted to do the same,” continued Jordan’s statement.

Ed Sheeran performs in Miami on May 4, 2024.Hard Rock International

The headteacher explained the school has “60 children who do individual music instrument tuition every week with Create Music, as well as wider music lessons,” and some of those students taught Sheeran how to play Queen’s “We Will Rock You” on a glockenspiel — “which he loved!”

“The children left school telling their parents all about it and no one believed them,” added Jordan. “But it was 100% true — you had to be there to believe it.”

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Ed Sheeran performs in London in December 2023.Simone Joyner/Getty

Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex about the moment, Jordan revealed none of the students knew Sheeran was coming to the school beforehand, while only a few staff members were clued in.

In a statement, Create Music director Peter Chivers expressed feeling “grateful” for Sheeran’s “support” as well as his “generous donation” of five guitars “to help other budding musicians on their way.”

This isn’t the first time Sheeran’s spent time with young musicians. In July 2023, he surprised the Boston Music Project Youth Group by performing alongside its young musicians at the Tobin Community Center in the Massachusetts capital before headlining his own concert at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough later that night.

Ed Sheeran performs in New York City in June 2023.Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

“Morning off in Boston so went to surprise this kids music group, was so fun,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram at the time alongside clips from the performance, which included “The Hills of Aberfeldy” and “Eyes Closed.”

Footage featured on the Boston Music Project’s Instagram Story also showed Sheeran sitting in the grass and chatting with the younger audience members as they watched the concert.

“I played with Ed Sheeran, that was really cool. I had a lot of fun. And he gave me a really cool guitar and he signed it,” one child said, as he held up his autographed instrument.