In the Hot Seat

06/09/25

Join us as we sit down with our Founder, Pippa Cleary, as we learn more about how Pippa’s Poppets started over 15 years ago, and how it’s changed over the years…

Hello Pippa, welcome to your interview! I want you to cast your mind back to 2009, can you remember the day that you decided to start Pippa's Poppets?

Yes! I was living with my parents after university and teaching music and movement at various different companies for young children. There was a mother living upstairs with her toddler, she mentioned that the songs at her local music class weren't particularly good. I said "Oh, I write songs, let me have a go!" So, I ended up writing a few songs and doing a music class for this mother and a few of her friends in my parents’ living room. It was really fun and informal, and gave me the chance to try out new songs and build the curriculum. About 6 months later we ended up having classes in a few local venues.

How did you transition into nurseries?

Again, I was lucky because I was living not too far away from the nursery I actually went to as a child, which was Young England Kindergarten. My big claim to fame is that apparently Princess Diana taught me! The now headmistress, Miss Kay, remembered me when I approached them saying I had started up this little business and would they have a go at some of my music classes. Because I played piano, which is something that Young England Kindergarten particularly love, it was an easy yes for them and, since then, we've expanded into lots of nurseries. I still play piano for their Christmas and summer shows. I've been working with them for 15 years and we have a really wonderful relationship.

Princess Diana at Young England Kindergarten

How have the classes developed over the years?

I started writing just for babies, which involved lots of movement. Everyone was up and about all the time and we had a lot of dancing around in circles! In fact one of the classes was in a shop in Pimlico called Little Bevan. I loved it there, and people could buy baby clothes as well as join the class, which was really nice. As time passed and the children grew, we inevitably needed to have a toddler class, which was even more boisterous and required a different curriculum because the children are that bit older and learning more complex things. Then, in time, we expanded into pre-school - so we ended up doing baby, toddler and pre-school classes in many venues surrounding Chelsea and Knightsbridge, Victoria and Battersea. We’re still in many of the same nurseries, as well as some new ones, and you can find our parent classes at Millie & Maisie and Fe Fe Fanclub!

Tell us more about your musical journey - how did you develop your song writing skills?

I've always loved a bop. I was the six-year-old watching Disney, bopping around in my living room, singing The Little Mermaid at the top of my voice. I've been visually impaired my whole life, so when I was learning the piano I struggled to read the music. This meant my improvisation skills developed quite early, and I found my own way of understanding music. I started writing songs from a very very early age and used to write little musicals for my cousins and brother to perform in the holidays, to the great disgrace of our whole family. I guess I've always written songs, and I realised I loved teaching children after I graduated university, so it was just a natural evolution to try and write pre-school songs that would help learning and development, but were also really catchy and fun to sing!

You've touched on it a little, but in what other ways would you say that Pippa's Poppets songs are different?

When I first started writing, most of the early years songs out there were very American, so I like the fact that Pippa’s Poppets songs are distinctly British, not to mention they're catchy! I always focus on getting musical elements into the songs - there's a lot of instrument recognition, starts and stops, changing of speeds and recognising rhythm that I try and put directly into the music, not just in the lesson plans. Then, of, course, I include everything that we need to incorporate from the7 areas of the EYFS curriculum, including communication, emotional development, fine and gross motor skills, and understanding the world. Obviously, they're also all a bit jazz hands because I'm a musical theatre composer! All of our teachers are musical theatre performers too, so I would say that all the songs swing towards the showbiz vibe, rather than some of the nursery songs you hear which can be quite clumpy. We all love a bop at Pippa’s Poppets! Even if we're covering a known nursery rhyme like ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, we add in an extra verse or a bridge with some new lyrics that always catch people off guard!

You mentioned that you're a West End composer and the teachers are all performers, could you tell us a little bit about your West End credits?

I can’t really believe it but I've been writing musicals now for 20 years. My West End shows were 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole', 'The Great British Bake-Off Musical', and 'My Son’s a Queer (But What Can You Do?)' I've written lots of musicals for children, too- I did 3 musicals for Singapore Repertory Theatre for under 10s, which were 'Red Riding Hood', 'Treasure Island' and 'Chicken Little'. I'm actually about to start writing some dinosaur songs for a company that does animation, and I've also done the odd pitch for Disney and Dreamworks (again, for under under 5s in particular). I'm really trying to break into that space. All of my teachers are fantastic performers with great theatre credit, including Miss Lizzie in ‘Peppa Pig Live’ (West End) and ‘Dinosaur World Live’ (UK Tour), Miss Harriet in ‘Horrible Histories’ (UK Tour), Mr Curtis in ‘Choir of Man' (Cruise) and ’A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (UK Tour), and Mr Eddy in ‘Pinocchio’ (Watermill Theatre) and ‘Macbeth’ (Orange Tree Theatre).

At what point did Father Christmas come into the picture?

One of our best teachers, Mr Curtis, who taught with us for many years, and was a particular favourite at Miss Daisy’s and The Willcocks, also works as a professional Father Christmas. In the pandemic, we teamed up to do home visits on doorsteps, singing songs and spreading joy. It started with families we were already working with, and then it grew to bespoke Father Christmas visits for schools, nurseries and corporate events, including Soho farmhouse. We've been doing it every year since.

Tell us about your parties and workshops?

Parties and workshops were a natural evolution from where we were with the classes because lots of parents would ask if we did them. Parties are great because there is so much energy in the room and you never know what's going to happen! For a few of our early parties, I teamed up with one of my best friends Katie Ashworth from CBeebies and the wonderful Maddy Moate who presented ‘Maddie’s Do You Know?' All of our teachers share a musical theatre background, so we love putting on mini musicals at our half term workshops. They're always themed and I write bespoke songs for the kids, which is always great fun!

What's been the biggest change in running Pippa's Poppets over the years?

Up until about 2 and a 1/2 years ago, I was pretty much running it on my own, alongside writing musicals, which was sometimes very stressful. But, what is so joyful is that now, I have a fantastic team to help me, including the incredible Grace as our Manager, Lizzie our Creative Lead, and Harriet running our Father Christmas bookings as Head Elf. It's really lovely to share ideas and see the business go from strength. It helps that we're all great friends too!

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