Children’s

Recording Percy Parker songs at Hurst Lodge
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I first started working at Hurst Lodge School during my final year at University and have worked part-time there ever since. In 2004, I was asked by a science teacher to write a song to help GCSE students remember their physics formulae. I recorded the track with members of the cast of “We Will Rock You” and was dead chuffed when Chris Moyles played it and slated it for nine whole minutes on his Radio 1 breakfast show. I went on to write and produce (with five talented singers from Hurst Lodge) a collection of songs to help children with their multiplication. Sing your times tables with Percy Parker was made into an audio CD and PC software package by Sherston Publishing in 2006.

Percy Parker's Flying Bathtub

Percy Parker’s Flying Bathtub (changed from “Flying Fridge” at the last minute for health and safety reasons) is my latest project for children. It’s a modular, cross-curricular, funky musical based on the primary curriculum. If your pupils are studying the Tudors in class, for instance, there’s a fifteen-minute scene (including two songs) based on the Tudors that they can read through in class, and perhaps perform simply in an assembly. If another class in your school is studying food chains or outer space, there are scenes for them too. And if you want to put on an end-of-year show, just put everyone’s scenes together and hey presto – a musical. Teachers can “pick and mix” scenes based on a variety of topics, including the Ancient Egyptians, the Romans, the Fire of London, World War II, and Diet and Digestion. Each scene comes with teaching notes, topic webs, choreography tips, and various other helpful things to bring history and science alive in the classroom. The first ten history modules were published by Scholastic in Spring 2010 in two content packs and there’s a pack containing five science modules on the way too.

I wrote the lyrics and the music for Percy Parker’s Flying Bathtub and David Foxton helped me to write the script. What an amazing bloke he is. Not only has he written seventy-nine plays more than me, many of which are published all over the world, he’s also a talented and well-respected painter and theatre director. A very clever chap.

If I died tomorrow, this musical would be the work I was most proud of, and I’m extremely grateful to Russ Payne, Nicky, Vicky and the children at Hurst Lodge for helping me to create it.