This paper foregrounds children’s experiences of migration that unfolded in socio-musical spaces in diverse Irish schools. The examination contributes to debates around the entanglements of religion and music education by investigating the children’s multiple ways of (non)participating and (non-)engaging (Kallio, Alperson and Westerlund, 2019). The discussion reflects an urgent and timely need to consider increasing levels of diversity in schools, with a particular focus on Ireland, and how this shapes children’s experience of music and sound within classroom and school spaces. As Stokes has argued ‘music is socially meaningful… largely because it provides means by which people recognise identities and places, and the boundaries which separate them’ (1994, 4-5). Reasonably, the songs and music making that happens in school settings shape children’ experiences of their learning, and their socialities. However, how does listening to and singing religious songs in the shared public settings of school shape children’ experiences of school, and their relationships with their peers? What meanings are made, how do they shift, and what are the dilemmas for the (non-)participating children? Through a qualitative ethnographic study within two Irish primary schools, the research provides insight into everyday school music experiences where the realities of ethnicity, culture and religious beliefs intersect with the realities of school structures, peer interaction and pedagogy. Such experiences constitute intercultural encounters among children but further encompass their teachers, school staff, and the children’s families. The dataset explored for this paper comprises researcher observations of religious expressions in school settings and events, and the primary school children’s narratives about such musical experiences. This involved 30 classroom observations across four classrooms in two schools as well as whole school musical events and semi-structured focus groups interviews with 34 children. The degree to which children intentionally participate in such musical encounters emerged as variable. The findings presented include children’s knowledge of certain songs, as well as awareness of their meaningfulness because their classmates are practicing them in-class. They also foreground children’s accommodating stance to diverse musical expressions, regardless of their personal affinities. By participating (or not) with their classmates, children demonstrated their familiarity with the repertoire and how it mediated their relationships with their classmates. Led by children’s perspectives of religious and musical entanglements in school, the paper invites reflection and reconsideration of the complex meanings they entail, as well as their ambiguity.