Published on: 10 October 2014




Hundreds of Prep School boys beat to the same drum on the final day of Term 3 as part of the finale of the Week of the Arts. Three hundred and fifty boys, from Years 3 to 6, performed an original piece of music on their own handmade drums for the Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day Assembly.

Music teacher Stephanie Harford said Kaboom Percussion was commissioned in Term 2 to create a percussion piece for the Week of the Arts for as many students as possible as well as engaging Art classes in a cross-curricular community theme.

Miss Harford said the boys began collecting materials from home as more than 350 boxes were gathered from schools and the community for the drum kit trays. The boys decorated their kits during Art classes and assembled their instruments, such as buckets, tins and cardboard mailing tubes, during Music. 


Students began learning the piece in lessons with each year group doing a different part. As the Week of the Arts approached, creators Catherine Hall and Joshua Webster from Kaboom, took the students through choruses and solos to perfect their stick skills. A Year 6 boy aptly named the piece, Beats and Pieces.

Miss Harford said the arts were important for boys as a way to express themselves and that rehearsals with 350 boys generated a lot of noise, excitement and energy. “It was wonderful for the boys to get a chance to create something that was theirs and hearing the effect of playing together and how it works,” she said.

The Week of the Arts showcased a number of Parents’ Association-funded Artist in Residence programs that have run in the Prep School during the term. Other Term 3 artists in residence included acclaimed WA portrait artist Andy Quilty, whose work with the boys was on display for Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day; as well as Sally Towner, who choreographed the Pre-Primary to Year 2 hip hop routine featuring Street Steps, which was part of the Week of the Art’s opening.

Click here to read more about the Prep Week of the Arts.