Music

Music is massively important to our family. Both us parents achieved Grade 8 on our main instruments (guitar and flute/piano) and the girls are very musical too. Agatha plays tenor horn and tuba and Peggy plays tuba and cornet. They both also used to have piano lessons but they chose to stop those in favour of just playing more informally. The girls have weekly brass instrumental lessons and work towards the ABRSM practical exams. For me, one of the major advantages of home educating, is that they have more time to play their instruments when the mood takes them rather than enforced practice time before and after school.

The girls both play in our local youth brass band, rehearsing twice a week. They love going and have a great social circle there with children from lots of different schools. They regularly play at events and at concerts which more than makes up for lack of school concerts. They’ve also just returned from an amazing week in St Ives in Cornwall where they’ve played concerts on the beach and had a go at surfing. We’re so grateful for this amazing community.

Our big focus at the end of 2022 and start of 2023 was for both girls to pass ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory as they can’t progress to Grade 6 practical without it. It was not pleasant and none of enjoyed it, but they both ended up passing with a merit.