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. The staff there are brilliant and the children have taught me a great deal about creativity and learning.

In 2004, I was asked by a science teacher to write a song to help GCSE students remember their physics formulae. The track was recorded by members of the cast of We Will Rock You and 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 a modular, cross-curricular, funky musical based on the Primary Curriculum. If children 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 the same school is studying food chains or outer space, there are scenes for them too. And to put on an end-of-year show, several scenes can be joined together to make a full-blown 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. Two History modules and a Science module were published by Scholastic in 2010.