Music room's makeover to inspire Peterborough pupils

The city’s popular and prolific street artist Nathan Murdoch, and his Street Arts Hire team, worked their magic on the walls at Discovery Primary in Mountsteven Avenue, Walton, after pupils were asked for suggestions about how they would like the walls to look.

The plain walls are now a vibrant mix of instruments and musical notations – and it is clearly having an effect, with a group of children performing an eye-catching mix of poetry and rap inspired by Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo at a schools’ poetry festival at the city’s Key Theatre.

It is all part of a process to hopefully inspire the youngsters in their musical endeavours as they progress through the school, which earlier this year was rated as “Good” by Ofsted inspectors.

Pleased with the room’s makeover, headteacher Michelle Siequien pointed out: “Music at Discovery is an important part of academy life.

"The music room inspires the children with its creativity, colourfulness and originality. It gives all children the opportunity to experience all curriculum subjects so they can excel and develop interests in those areas that they are passionate about.

“The room is not only used for our music curriculum but for whole class instrument teaching, using ukuleles, djembe drumming and Samba percussion, it’s also a rehearsal space for multiple performance projects.

"The children have just returned from a successful Poetry Festival and are now busy rehearsing for their next performance at The Cresset.”