If you walk past the Music Block on one of these lovely Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday Spring mornings, you will hear the delightfully cacophonous sound of students practising their instruments.

This is Premium Practice time: twenty five minutes in the morning when instrumental students from the Remove and Lower Fourth have been allocated structured time for practice. There is always at least one member of the full-time music staff on hand to advise, accompany on the piano, and generally encourage these keen musicians. By utilising every corner of available space in the Music Department (including all the offices!), we have just about managed to find a slot for all the girls learning an instrument in the lower two years of Downe. And as a direct result of this (combined with the new Minority Instruments Scheme and the on-going support of our talented team of Visiting Music Teachers), there has been an influx of young musicians into Second Orchestra; girls who are improving at a rate of knots having practised their music.