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NMPAT Duston Centre

While Centres are not able to meet in person, we have a brand new initiative: NMPATVC our new virtual Centre.

Just like the regular centres you don’t need any experience to join in, and there is something for everyone who enjoys Music and the Performing Arts to participate in.

Sessions will be held on Saturday mornings from 9.30-12.30 via Zoom. There will be a timetable of activities including:

A welcome and warm-up session
Instrumental ensembles for all standards
Musical theatre
Adult community choir
Weekly workshops including GM, Jazz, Folk and Drama

View the full timetable here: VC timetable

What can you do at Duston Centre?

Welcome to the NMPAT Duston Centre. Our dedicated team of teachers run a rich and varied array of activities which cover music, drama and dance, as well as activities for ‘early years’ students. Our centre has a strong ‘community’ feel, with a parent led ‘friends’ group who help with the tuck shop and the general running of the centre.

A timetable of face-to-face activities will be made available once we have confirmation around resuming meetings at the Centre.

Early years

Activities include music, mime, song, ocarina, kazoo, recorder, ukulele and percussion.

Children who already play an instrument

We offer a large variety of music groups which include wind band, folk group, orchestra, jazz band, rock bands, ukulele, percussion, guitar classes, ‘grown up’ band, choir and much more. All standards are catered for, from the novice to the more experienced player.

Dance and drama

We offer both dance and drama at the centre. No experience is required for these sessions which are called ‘street dance’ and ‘movement and drama’.

Children who don’t play an instrument

We offer a variety of activities for children who don’t yet play an instrument. These activities include drama, dance, choir, keyboard, percussion, music theory and ukulele.

Come for a free taster session

If you would just like to come and see what we do, you would be most welcome to come for a taster session with no obligation to sign up. Just turn up and someone will be able to show you what there is to see.

Where and when

Where do we meet?

Under normal circumstances we meet at:

Millway Primary School
Millway
Duston
Northampton
NN5 6ES

When do we meet?

Saturday mornings during term time: 9:30am to 12:30pm.

Term dates for the current academic year

NMPAT Centre weeks 2020-21

The autumn term will begin virtually – please register here or contact VC@NMPAT.co.uk for more information.

In the event of unavoidable closures, information will be via the centre on our Facebook feed.

Contact details and subscription information

The centre head is local brass teacher, John Bickerdike.

You can email the centre: duston@nmpat.co.uk

You can contact the main NMPAT office.

Before you start

There is some important information we would need in order to safeguard your child to the best of our ability. Please complete the Student essential details form below and return it to your centre head.

Centres Essential Details form

How much does it cost?

Please see the payments page for details of membership subscriptions and how to pay.

Help us reduce costs by paying online through Parent Pay and please consider Gift Aiding your membership subscription so that we can avoid raising subscription rates unnecessarily.

How to pay – ParentPay shop >>

Policies

You can find our child protection policy, code of conduct, and photographic policy on our policies page.

How to find us

Coronavirus and NMPAT

20 June 2021

Thank you to everyone who has supported our COVID recovery face to face events over the last two weeks. It has been great to see some of the County Groups meeting together as whole ensembles for the first time since March 2020, and wonderful to welcome Saturday Centre members back to our transitional opening events in Northampton, Brackley and Oundle. The joy of hearing young people making music together in the same space cannot be underestimated – even if sitting 2m apart feels extremely unnatural!

Plans for our County Groups are now focused on our Summer Festival of Music at Derngate on 2nd-4th July. We have shared intended times of performance, and are working with Derngate to confirm arrangements for ticketing for each of the 20 performances which will take place over the three days. There will be no charge for attendance at these events, which will be fully funded by the Government’s Cultural Recovery Fund, but audience numbers will be limited. This is all being planned in conjunction with Royal and Derngate, following Government advice for our sector, and ensuring the safety of all participants, audience members, staff and volunteers at all times. We will share further information with you as soon as it is confirmed.

Unfortunately, the Music for Youth National Festival, which was to have been held in Birmingham on 9th and 10th July will not be taking place. This event would have brought 500 young people together on each day from all over the country. The rise of the Delta variant in the Birmingham area has led to its cancellation and our groups will not be attending.

To help us keep our activities safe, we ask you to continue to observe 2m distancing, to wear masks when arriving and not seated in a rehearsal and to continue to be aware and vigilant of COVID restrictions.

Thank you for your support in helping us to gradually increase the opportunities that we offer.

Peter Smalley, Chief Executive