Rhythm and Poetry for World Music Day

World Music Day is an opportunity to celebrate music from around the world with everyone across the globe.

At Leighton Park, where music is prized as a real strength of the school, we welcomed award-winning rappers, ‘Proph’ aka Bhishma Asare and Malcolm ‘Tubby Boy’ for a whole school Collect and a workshop with Year 9s on Friday 19th June to mark Sunday’s 2026 World Music Day.

Proph explained: “Music is important; it’s a great form of expression especially for young people, whether they are writing it, playing it or listening to it. Music is a powerful tool. There are so many different ranges of music and varieties of music. Rap is sometimes a genre of music that is overlooked but all types of music, all types of instruments, should be celebrated on World Music Day.”

Proph shared part of his journey from his roots in South London’s Thornton Heath, an area notorious for crime and anti-social behaviour, through to his gracious receipt of an MBE presented by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace. Despite rap as an art form being banned at his school, Proph’s talents with rhythm and poetry won the enthusiastic support of his English teacher who championed the cause for youth rap and changed the school’s stance. Proph’s rapping centres on the opportunity to change with a focus on shaping a different future. His messages very much align with Leighton Park’s Quaker ethos and aims to create changemakers of the future. Proph’s successful career has enabled him to launch ‘Rap Therapy’, an organisation which improves the mental health and creativity of students through rap.

Rosemary Scales, Director of Music, commented, “It was wonderful to see Bhish from ‘Rap Therapy’ delivering a fantastic Collect, which clearly captured our students as the crowd at the end waiting to speak to him demonstrated. Rap is not something historically we have showcased much at LP so it was inspiring to hear him talk and break down those stereotypes surrounding this style of music. At Leighton Park we are a community that loves and values our music which we share this through our music for all approach, and through our pastoral and Music teams’ wellbeing collaborative, ‘Sound for Soul’. World Music Day encourages just a little bit more music into our daily lives than usual and I hope that this will inspire students and staff to listen more often for the whole year round rather than one day.

Finishing the Collect Proph summarised his thoughts on the power of rap music, compelling students to challenge stereotypes and change the way people see them, to  stay true to themselves and challenge the status quo and to remember that music can help them through some of life’s toughest moments. He concluded: “My visit at Leighton Park has been brilliant, amazing, sensational! I’ve bumped into students, I’ve bumped into staff and they’ve all been extremely friendly. What really stood out to me was that the fact that young people came up to me to have conversations and I’ve not been going up to young people to have conversations So it’s the confidence of being able to make me feel welcome, ask me questions, have conversations And it’s a beautiful grounds!”

In addition to the Collect, TubbyBoy and Proph delivered a workshop to our September 2026 Year 9 cohort, an interactive and inspiring addition to our Year 9 Orientation Day, Oakview themed their lunch boards with delicious dishes such as 'Pink Floyd Chicken' and a lunchtime concert in the MMC Upper Foyer provided the contrast to the morning's rap sessions with its eclectic variety of global sounds, including a song in Turkish!

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