About
I started my career as stage management in the theatre before training to be a teacher.
I had a short spell in a secondary school before settling into the primary age range, eventually became a deputy head.
I started writing songs and musicals for my school and was spotted by a production company who contracted me to write the music for a two part series about horses for Channel 4.
Eventually I left teaching and took onboard several projects including writing and recording for BBC schools radio, an international reading scheme, work for various publishers of material for primary schools and also an extensive music scheme for Worcestershire County. I was also writing and recording for ITV.
I started a business called MEW (Music in Education Workshops), and took music workshops around primary schools, days which culminated in an improvised musical. Great fun.
Over the years I amassed quite a few musicals for primary age children, and started to sell them nationally myself. MEW offered schools scripts, scores and CDs with children singing the catchy melodies.
Several years ago, at sixty nine, I retired, and the selling of my musicals was taken over by a company called Musicline. You can find their link below, and, of course, should you be a primary school teacher, you might like to buy one.
This website is one of my hobbies. I have included quite a lot of old, (some of it very old!!), unpublished material, and some new in the hope that some primary aged children, (and perhaps other members of the family), might enjoy passing a few minutes listening to my often humorous songs and stories.
I hope to be adding new material for a very long time to come.
My Music
I use an Apple Mac with a midi keyboard to compose and record my songs and stories.
Very occasionally I might use a real guitar, but most of the time the sounds I use are generated by the computer, and I just arrange them how I want using a program called Logic Pro. It never ceases to amaze me.
Of course computer generated sounds can never be as realistic as real life instruments, but they can sometimes get fairly close … and of course, there are different levels of investment in IT equipment and software that can make things almost indistinguishable. I don’t attain to those levels!!
If you are interested, take a look at the video section at the bottom where I try to explain how I go about constructing a song.
Journal
TAILS TAIL
Seven small animals have a competition to see who
has the longest tail.
Ruth the rabbit doesn’t stand a chance with her little blob of a tail, but Sammy the snake says he is ALL tail … and he wins.
When Ruth suggests they have another competition to see who has the shortest tail, she wins.
Turns out their tails are just the right size for each of them.
KEY STAGE 1 ITEMS YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
GOLDILOCKS
THE GINGERBREAD MAN
HUMPTY DUMPTY
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
LITTLE WOOLLY WANDA. A charming video about a lost sheep.
BITS AND BOBS collections for Key Stage 1 are also very popular.
STARSHIP MARINES
The Marines, the Starship Marines.
Zoe dreamed one day of being a Starship Marine … lazering aliens into slime. Been playing too many video games probably.
Starship Marines, always ready to fly … always ready to soar .. always ready to fight … always ready to defend the weak …..
Call the Starship Marines. Oops, they’re not ready yet.
Listen & Look
The song comes from my podcast A HEAP OF SHEEP. Woolly Wanda wonders about wandering, and ponders the unknown yonder.
Just one song here …. fun, as you might guess. The firm is doing pretty well selling bananas, whilst being pretty scathing about humanoids!
Single, thoughtful song…. everyone has grey, down days, but hopefully the sunshine will eventually appear. A nod to the blues .
Take a trip on the Realway Railway. The Gospel Train makes several stops on its journey and reminds us of some characters from the Bible. You could explore their stories for yourselves later on.
Goldilocks and the Whatjamacallems Three bears discover that their porridge has been got at, a chair is in bits, and there is a little girl with golden hair having a kip in Mitch’s bed. GOLDILOCKS THREE BROWN BEARS
A holiday on the Nile … the only problem? Crocodiles! Maggie and her family move to a hotel in Aswan which actually has a pool … and no crocodiles! (It does serve brilliant baklava though)
Woolly Wanda, Mary’s little lamb, would wonder about wandering, and ponder the unknown yonder. After Wanda had wandered, I t turns out that Wanda was fonder of where she had been in the first place! WOOLLY WANDA LOST PROPERTY
Traditional story told in humorous, non-traditional way, with children singing four great songs … (but I would say that). LITTLE BROWN COW: OFF TO THE FAIR : UP THE BEANSTALK : FEE-FI-FO-FUM
Get in Touch
If you’d like to get in touch, please fill out my contact form and I will get back to you.
Get in Touch
If you’d like to get in touch, please fill out our contact form and we will get back to you.