A Musical Year

It has been a great year in the Secondary Music Department. Lessons continue to be rich and diverse, with many different genres and styles being studied, in both Music and Music Technology alike. At the end of the first term, we celebrated our hard work with a musical showcase for Key Stage 3 students. They performed in their class groups to each other in what was a very noisy, but enjoyable event. Performances ranged from Year 7 Taiko drumming to Year 8 African Djembe Drumming, to finally, arguably the loudest and most exciting*, Year 9 Brazilian Samba! (*anonymous Year 9 student opinion). All students were driven to excel in their individual parts and determined to present their best musical outcome as a group. They collaborated, listened, and worked tirelessly together, resulting in the most wonderful performances. 

The Year 11 students worked tirelessly and in very difficult circumstances to make sure that their GCSE coursework was complete and ready for submission, all of them recording their solo performances in their own homes! 

Students in Music Technology explored the concept of remixing Beethoven’s 5^thSymphony, creating their own EDM compositions, Sampling and Hip-Hop, to name but a few. The absolute highlight of the year was of course our joint collaboration with our sister school NACIS.

Miss Li writes … ‘Our Senior Choir is a small group but it feels like a family, we get to see each other twice a week, sing, and enjoy music together. They are welcoming, bubbly and of course, very talented! They have shown a great passion for music, and you can really hear it shine through in their singing. Among the many highlights, were performing for the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Shangri-La Hotel, rehearsing and learning a new song in three days with NACIS students, and performing them at the concluding Music Festival Concert. It was a challenging, yet rewarding year. It was a delight working with all of you - I look forward to seeing you all again next year!’