On Tuesday this week, St Mary’s was blessed with a visit by Jeff Rich, the former drummer of British iconic pop-rock band Status Quo. Jeff, who originally hailed from Hackney in East London, spent the morning at St Mary’s talking to our pupils about his background, including how he first got into playing the drums. Jeff explained that he first started playing the drums at the age of 9 and how he helped to pay for his lessons by taking up a paper round and by washing cars. He talked about how he had spent his life touring around the world and appearing at some huge venues and even Top of the Pops (one for the mums and dads there!).  Jeff also introduced the children to different types of drums, including the Talking Drum, Tabla, Tabor, Timpani, Marching Snare and many others. He demonstrated using them and then some of our lucky pupils also got to have a go, using some of these types of drums and at the end all of the pupils and the staff took part in a Percussion Orchestra, whilst Jeff played his impressive drum set alongside us. All of the staff and pupils agreed that it was an absolutely amazing experience and we look forwards to our next Cultural experiences as the year progresses!