We are so thrilled that we have been awarded Best for Music in The Week’s Best of the Best guide to the UK’s top independent prep schools (p47). We are immensely proud of our very talented music team and all the children who work together to bring music alive here every day.
Even absolute beginners are encouraged to enjoy playing their instruments in front of an audience at this day and boarding prep in Chichester. The school’s ‘Friends and Family’ concerts are a great way for pupils to build musical confidence and performance skills. All pupils start by learning the recorder for a year and around three quarters go on to take up at least one other instrument. Two orchestras, three choirs, a big band and chamber ensembles make full use of the new performing arts centre which is well equipped with practice rooms and music composition equipment. Every year the whole school takes part in a day of music when a visiting musician is invited to judge solo and ensemble performances. It’s all rounded off with a keenly fought house ‘sing off’.
The WEEK 2021 UK guide to leading prep schools
Mr Dichmont, Director of Music, said: "We are delighted. The Music School is a wonderfully busy place. We host regular informal concerts, at which our pupils perform in a supportive setting, building musical confidence and performance skills. We also put on formal concerts involving the school’s large number of choirs and ensembles. The choirs present traditional Advent and Christmas carol services in the beautiful setting of Boxgrove Priory, our local church, and in 'normal’ times we sing at local care homes. Our fifty-strong Chapel Choir tour annually to Europe, most recently to Belgium and Rome, and we look forward to these tours resuming in the future.”
One Year 7 pupil added: “It’s great news. I started school here in Reception and began with the recorder and music has been part of my life here ever since. We get chance to try so many different instruments, we sing in year groups as well as choirs, do rock as well as classical, and we even get the chance to be in a musical. We learn about all sorts of things in our classroom lessons like music history, writing songs and working as part of a team to create cool performances ... so there is something for everyone.”
