As I write this, Little Proclaims is sitting next to me playing the piano.

Well, piano is perhaps overstating things.

I suppose electronic keyboard would be more accurate. I’m no expert, and I don’t know when a keyboard becomes a piano. Is it to do with the number of keys?

What I’m not overstating is the fact that Little Proclaims is playing it and, to my untrained ear, playing it quite well.

I mentioned in last week’s post that she recently won the music prize at school.

We were very proud of her, of course, but a primary school awards evening can sometimes feel a bit ‘performative’. It was nice that the school felt Little Proclaims deserved her moment in the spotlight, but there’s a rumour (perhaps unfounded) that over the course of primary school, all the kids are picked for something.

Still, it was nice that she got something in the first year she was eligible. The awards were for ‘key stage 2’, which, for the uninitiated in the UK education system, means the last four years of primary school. Little Proclaims was receiving her award in the first of those four years. So I guess we’ll find out in the next few years whether it’s a true meritocracy or something else.

But we were surprised she got the music prize. In our (apparently elitist) eyes, it was one of the ‘big four’ – the others being maths, reading, and sport. There were other prizes, but they all felt a bit ‘made-up’. The kind of thing that is often criticised by the right-wing media as pandering to the young. I don’t actually object to awards for ‘friendship’ and ‘kindness’, but I’m not sure how one could ever accurately produce success criteria for those. I actually think Little Proclaims could have been in contention for one of the fluffier categories. She’s a good kid. When she’s not at home. She saves all her less desirable moments for us.

But we were delighted by the music prize. We just couldn’t understand it. We know she’s good at reading. We know the kid who won the reading prize is also good at reading because she’s friends with Little Proclaims, and it’s a friendship which is underpinned by a sometimes tense rivalry. So I imagine Little Proclaims was in contention for the reading prize, and perhaps, if this is not a one-award-per-child deal, she might be in contention for that one in the future. As I mentioned last week, Little Proclaims’ unknowing ‘boyfriend’ won the maths prize and, from what I understand, he is head and shoulders above the rest. Sport is definitely not Little Proclaims’ thing, so probably her only chance for one of the big four was music this time around.

But neither Mrs Proclaims nor I have any musical aptitude. When we agreed to fund piano lessons through the school, it was merely to give her the opportunity, because we felt it was something our limited budget could stretch to and it seemed like a nice thing for her to experience.

But the girl has practised.

And practised.

And practised.

And now she’s playing something that I can definitely recognise as being Mozart.

Or Beethoven.

Or something.

To be fair, I don’t know anything about classical music.

But it’s one of those pieces of music that you’d recognise even if you know nothing about music.

And I definitely recognise it.

So it seems like she definitely did deserve the music prize.

Which is great.

And I’d like to support her continued development in this arena.

Not too quickly though.

There’s just about enough room for a beginner’s electronic keyboard in Proclaims Towers.

There won’t be enough room for a full-size piano any time soon.

Mini Proclaims has now joined us.

She too is an enthusiastic musician, though does not yet play any instruments.

She prefers to use her voice.

Which is a powerful voice.

Not always entirely tuneful.

But definitely powerful.