Now an annual event in its fourth year, #PromsInThePlayground is the initiative that encourages community bands to connect with their local schools by offering a performance in that school's playground. As well as getting young people excited about brass banding, the project supports bands to forge and strengthen relationships with organisations around them.
The next #PromsInThePlayground will take place 30 June - 18 July 2025, and all brass bands and schools are invited to take part.
Recent years have seen an increasing demand from schools who wish to participate in the programme. For 2025, the creation of a new database of interested bands will enable matching of schools with bands in their area.
“One slight hitch that has become apparent over the four years of PitP is that of schools finding a band to link to. Those connections made that are initiated by brass bands to schools have worked really well. It has proved more difficult to make that link in reverse, from schools to bands.
To fix this, we would like to create a national database of brass bands which schools can refer to and contact their nearest bands if they would like to take part in this opportunity. We would like those brass bands that can, to get in touch with us, to tell us that they are one of those bands.
More and more brass bands and schools are making valuable musical connections to benefit our children and give them an experience to remember, and it’s fabulous!” - BBE Learning Manager, Sheila Allen
For those bands that want to go beyond just a performance, the initiative is an ideal opportunity to offer a taster session so that school children can learn about the opportunities in your brass band. For those with BBE membership, a variety of relevant resources can be found in the BBE Member Resources library.
Pairing of schools and bands will take place from 3 March. Bands interested in taking part can add themselves to the #PromsInThePlayground Database now, and bands wanting to find out more can visit the #PromsInThePlayground information page.