Meet the Teacher - Philip Cree, Churcher's College, UK
Philip Cree has been leading the academic side of Churcher’s College’s musical offering for over 12 years now, but that is just the latest chapter of a long and varied music education career. I had the chance to speak to Phil at length (I could probably write a biography!) about his career, both in the UK and in international schools. But first for some quickfire questions!
Quickfire questions
Which parts of your professional week do you look forward to the most?
“Wherever I have taught throughout my career, I’ve always run a Chamber Choir of some sort, and Churcher's is no exception. Currently I love taking saxophone group on a Wednesday morning – a bunch of good readers who play together really well. I've even got a French Horn Chorus! Overall, though, it’s mainly about what you can achieve with a group of people from where you started: we’ve just started a first year [year 7] brass group, and getting them all breathing in and playing together by the end of the first rehearsal was a satisfying achievement!”
A couple of years ago, your music department moved into a completely new building. How has this affected the way things work?
“It has been transformative. The previous music building was pretty small, not ideally laid out; when you think about it, we did amazing things from that department, but moving into the new space has worked very well.”
Note from author: the new building at Churcher’s (opened 2022) is very large, housing several departments but with music at its centre. A large auditorium is divisible by a sliding wall, creating extra teaching space on top of a standard classroom and more than a dozen practice rooms, keeping the peripatetic teachers much closer together than before.
“We had some issues with sound initially in the temporary classroom because it was just so loud and echoey, but we realised that by closing the curtain for the big window we could create a good teaching space.”
Phil goes on to explain that the biggest positive impact of the move is probably an extra-curricular one – recitals have been massively improved by the convenient and sizeable auditorium space, with a much better audience experience and ample room for students to sit and support their peers. The larger ensembles (wind bands, jazz bands) can also get involved in more regular performance due to the increased space. Phil’s new initiative of music assemblies has also taken off. He especially enjoys getting the younger members of the school up to ‘conduct’ the Senior Wind Band, harking back to some of his formative, and seemingly most memorable musical experiences (keep reading!).
What’s on the department wish list?
“Tubular bells! Occasionally you just really want them for the odd moment here and there, so it has become a bit of a joke within the department.”
What equipment do you value the most in your teaching spaces?
Phil’s list of essentials includes:
- A chair with wheels - "teachers sit down more than they used to due to increased use of technology."
- A piano (he uses a Yamaha upright)
- A computer with good speakers
- Sibelius/any notation software
“The biggest changes in classroom teaching over my career have been (1) the ability to look up any piece of music – and even choose your favourite version – at the drop of a hat online, and (2) the massive increase in how quickly students can write music on computers compared to hand writing it.”
What are the best pieces of advice you can give about teaching?
“Probably something like “don’t stick to the plan!”. I think that humour always has to be an essential part of it. Especially when teaching something creative like composition it’s crucial to have a relaxed atmosphere and relationship with students so you can have a more open discussion. Making sure you always speak with clarity is important, too.”
Read on for more about Phil...
Contents
I know Phil as an energetic, inspiring and extremely knowledgeable music teacher, having been a student of his throughout secondary school and particularly in GCSE and A Level music classes, as well as playing and singing in various of his ensembles. But before he settled in Hampshire, Phil had one of the most interesting and adventurous careers of any music teacher I have encountered.
15 out of the first 20 years of his career were spent working outside the UK, across five different countries in three different continents: From the skyscrapers of Dubai to the pyramids of Giza and the hills of Rome, Phil has travelled far and wide, but music teaching has remained a constant occupation.
A musical upbringing
Growing up in West Yorkshire in the 1970s, Phil was surrounded by music from an early age and although neither of his parents were professional musicians themselves, both were heavily involved in music. Specifically, they were part of one several prominent brass band communities which populate the North of England. His Dad conducted one of these bands, meaning that young Phil would often end up sitting in rehearsals, listening and absorbing.
He also had a good voice as a boy, occasionally performing “adorable” (he says with a self-aware grin) recitals accompanied by his Mum on piano. The family clearly cottoned on to Phil’s vocal talent quickly; aged just nine, he auditioned and was accepted for a choral scholarship at Ripon Cathedral Choir School. Phil describes this as a ‘transformational event’ in his life, with the rigour of singing daily services engendering strong musical discipline. “It was also my first experience of conducting”, he says, “… well, beating time, at least!”.
Phil commenced French horn (moving away from his initial cornet playing) and piano lessons aged 10 at Ripon, and all this musical endeavour led to a music scholarship to Shrewsbury School aged 13.
“A boarding school with a strong inter-house music competition, there were 11 houses with around 60 boys in each. My house, with me directing it, won the house singing competition three years on the trot! There was a tutor who was going to accompany but he was [less than ideal] so I got my piano teacher in […] I think that was where I was first getting a sense of directing other people and the arm-twisting that is essential in doing that.”
The university experience
Further choral experience, in a gap year as a lay clerk at Wells Cathedral School, helped Phil to gain another scholarship, this time as an Organist at Oxford University. He read Music at Pembroke College, and quickly took over the running of their college choir:
“Small chapel, one service a week. Recruit a bunch of amateur singers […] some of them could sing! You had to deliver evensong, 6 o’clock every Sunday. There was another organ scholar there at the same time […] He was a much better organist than me, but less experienced at conducting […] so fairly quickly he said “you do all the conducting!”. Coming from a cathedral background, absolutely on top of the repertoire, I knew what it should sound like and I wouldn’t settle for anything less” - a characteristic that Phil's students are well aware of to this day!
With his extensive experience and understanding of the Anglican choral tradition honed over years of regular singing, playing and conducting, Phil had the confidence to pull off the repertoire. On top of that, he enjoyed “recruiting” the best amateurs he could get to come and sing with a choir less prestigious than many of its Oxford peers.
In fact, he acknowledges that despite enjoying some of his academic modules, many of the most important and useful things he learned at university came from ‘teaching’ this choir.
The journey into teaching
With hindsight, it’s easy to say “well of course he went into teaching!”. High level academics combined with advanced keyboard and conducting skills, as well as recruitment of students for ensemble singing all seemingly serve as excellent music education training!
And so it proved. Phil studied a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at Reading, in Music AND History:
“I’ve always been passionate about History. A lot of my travelling has revolved around historical interest, I could well have been a History teacher and I did a bit of KS3 History teaching at my first school, which I loved. And Music just goes with History! Composers are creating music in the real world, not in a bubble. They’re influenced by everything else going on around them.”
He emphasised the importance of attaching a lot of value to what you do in the classroom at all times. It has to be an inclusive thing.
Phil on the teaching philosophy of his mentor, Mike Lynch
Upon finishing this, he decided that his first full-time job should be at a state school, feeling this would give an important grounding for his career. He got a job at St Peter’s School, Huntingdon, a good school with in impressive musical ethos, and also where Phil worked under Mike Lynch, Head of Music at St Peter’s. Mr Lynch was a teaching expert and ‘a good mentor’:
“He emphasised the importance of attaching a lot of value to what you do in the classroom at all times. It has to be an inclusive thing. Everyone has some kind of musical ability and you have to pick the opportunity to let them show that. I had a very inclusive philosophy, I think, about what music should be.”
A Brit abroad
“I didn’t really have a career plan”, he says. “My parents had travelled a lot for work – always making it home in time for rehearsals of course! – and a lot of their travel came about through musical connections, so the idea of working in another country didn’t seem strange to me.”
An opportunity to teach for a year in Hungary - a country with which Phil was somewhat familiar - came up, so naturally he took it.
“In the final days of August 1993, I got on a coach at London Victoria. After a 30-something hour journey to Budapest, and another 3-hour train to the school in southeast Hungary, I was taken straight into the staff room and given a standing ovation simply for having got myself there!”.
This experience certainly sounds a tad daunting (“I probably wasn’t very well informed!”, he says cheerfully), but enjoyable too, and this adventurous spirit is something that seems to match the international teaching lifestyle rather well. Notably, despite only working there for a year, Phil made friends for life out in Hungary, some of whom he is going back to visit later this year!
A few months teaching in southern Spain followed, before his first return to the UK in the mid-1990s to teach at Hardley School near Southampton. This was a much more challenging school for music teaching, but no doubt that challenge provided a good career step too. Soon, though, adventure called once more...
The English College, Dubai – 1997 to 2005
Deciding to teach abroad again and go full ‘ex-pat’, this was the first Head of Music role that Phil took on, but with considerable experience behind him it was something he was well prepared for:
“No, I wasn’t daunted. The ex-pat community was much smaller then than it is now, so you could be a big fish in a small pond, you had opportunities to do things, make things happen in the musical community.”
For instance, relatively early in his 8-year stint Phil put on a production of The Pirates of Penzance with the Dubai Singers; he stepped into the role of Musical Director with very little time to spare and had to pull together a large orchestra (around 40-piece) at short notice, “enlisting many fellow international music teachers” to work with him.
“That was the start of the Dubai Chamber Orchestra, which I then conducted for the next three years until I left. At various times, it probably included most of the music teachers at the other international schools!”
Professionally, there were various positives. The sheer fact that someone who had so far tended to jump around to various places thus far chose to remain there for almost a decade is indicative of a good environment; it seems that Phil had a lot of agency in the position and he commends the school's consistently impressive resources and great kids.
The British International School, Cairo – 2005 to 2007
I used Cairo, like Dubai beforehand, as a springboard to various places. And I absolutely loved living in Cairo, being immersed in middle eastern culture.
Phil’s move to Cairo demonstrates one of the key lifestyle values of being open to international teaching opportunities:
“I used Cairo, and Dubai beforehand, as a springboard and would shoot off to various places, and for 10 years every holiday I took was to parts of the world you can no longer visit: Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan… which is extraordinary to think about now, but I absolutely loved that! And I absolutely loved living in Cairo, being immersed in middle eastern culture, and loved the people.”
For someone with a boundless interest in history and an appetite to experience a range of different cultures, the chance to work a job you love in a language you know, but wherever in the world you like, is a fantastic attraction. This was a more politically charged environment at the time, where playground politics often mirrored the tensions of national-level public affairs; teachers were encouraged to be of aware this, which provided a new challenge as well.
“Most of the kids I was teaching were the Egyptian children of the ruling elite - this is pre the First Arab Spring of 2011 - which made things rather complicated, although interesting.”
Whilst unquestionably an impressive establishment, there were also certain “musical frustrations”, with fewer extra-curricular opportunities compared to previous jobs which made it feel somewhat like ‘treading water’. This does highlight one of the tricky things about moving location in terms of both life and work: “You don’t always quite know what you’re getting into!”.
Nonetheless, the school clearly provided Phil with lasting happy memories. For example, he managed to put on a Christmas carol concert, which may sound surprising given that many of his students were Muslims, “but they loved singing carols!” He even fondly remembers one girl willingly attending all the rehearsals before gracefully bowing out of the actual concert, for religious reasons.
One definite positive Phil found in Cairo was the opportunity to teach the International Baccalaureate (IB), which he found to offer a 'more well-rounded’ curriculum than that of traditional A Levels. He especially liked the fact that IB gave him freedom to create his own listening course, being less prescriptive than A level and allowing for more variety.
Relatively quickly though, he wanted to move on and after a quick 2-month musical sabbatical in Beijing, he took up a post as Head of Music at…
St George’s British International School, Rome - 2007 to 2010
This was the only time throughout the interview that Phil acknowledged taking on a job as “slightly daunting”. His predecessor had been formidable and achieved a lot at the school, whipping their music provision into impressive shape using rather different teaching techniques to Phil. As a result, he had the challenge of living up to the stringent standards of the past, using contrasting methods to those that came before.
It does, however, seem that Phil came up trumps: “We were lucky to go on some really amazing tours: Budapest, Vienna [brilliant!], Malta and Lisbon” were all on the agenda, and the school’s musical provision seems to have been very impressive. Multiple performances of Handel’s Messiah were put on, and good relationships between a small number of staff ensured relatively smooth running of both the secondary and primary elements.
Phil even got to go back to his Anglican musical roots, singing with an out-of-school choir in the All Saints’ Anglican Church in Rome… although one can imagine what the attendance was like at some of those services, but the choir drew a large crowd on a Sunday morning.
As with many jobs, there were certain challenges to negotiate: “Looking back, we could probably have done with another staff member in the department. With only 3 staff members – two in the primary part of the school and me as Head of Music – it was always a challenge [to do all the things we wanted to]. I felt like I had to be able to do it as my rather intimidating predecessor had done, but my job should probably have been done by two people really!”
This vast amount of time and energy spent on work also diminished Phil’s chances to experience the Eternal City to the fullest. Living on the outskirts with relatively little free time and a “slightly less lucrative package” than he was afforded in previous positions, his work-life balance skewed slightly too far towards the former.
At this stage in his career, Phil decided it was time for a change. Wanting to be closer to family, he moved back to the UK, enabling him to finally make full use of the house he had bought whilst teaching near Southampton. He also started an MA in Music Education at the Institute of Education in London (now part of UCL), pursuing interests in psychology, sociology and other more modern musicological disciplines which had not yet been adopted in his time at Oxford.
Churcher's College Senior School, UK – 2011 to present
However, Phil did not leave active teaching for long. He took up a full-time job teaching academic music at Churcher’s College Senior School, Petersfield, the school he has remained at to this day. He continued studying part-time: “Churcher’s music is a hard thing to really do ‘part-time’ – there’s so much commitment to music within the school. So it took me 3 years to actually finish my masters!”. Indeed, Phil quickly became a crucial member of staff, with his experiences in such varied schools throughout his career proving useful across the board.
Having been at Churcher’s myself, I can confirm that the school’s attitude to music is utterly full-on, particularly in extra-curricular terms. Flagship ensembles include an orchestra, wind band, jazz band and large senior choir, but all sorts of other smaller groups are constantly on the go. Musicals, tours and grand summer concerts are regular features too, and there is a strong sense of community in the department. It’s the very definition of ‘all-singing, all-dancing’ (if you’ll pardon the pun).
The academic side has also improved markedly over the last few years, in no small part due to Phil’s presence; he is primarily responsible for the academic side of the department. Four full-time members of staff are kept busy as every pupil from year 7-9 takes music, with some (enough for two classes' worth) continuing to GCSE and a steady stream of A level students too. In the last decade or so a Music Tech facet has also been developed, including the addition of a new teacher with relevant expertise.
Given that it is now his longest-standing professional post, Churcher’s clearly suits Phil extremely well!
