Covid Timetable Performances

With so much of the 2020/21 academic year being under 'covid restrictions' the music department has had to rely on filmed performances to fill the gap left by a complete lack of live music events. We hope the filmed performances below will go some way to entertaining our community.

Rest assured that music-making in the real sense of the word is taking place at Wrotham School every day. Students and classes are still performing, creating and practising music every lesson.

Our GCSE and Key Stage 5 students still have to find a way to submit performances, even if it is just practice evidence. 30% of the GCSE qualification relies on performance alone. Perhaps one good thing about being in lockdown and isolation for most young musicians is that there is plenty of time to practise.

See below for guidance on submitting performance evidence AND also submitting media for us to upload as actual performances on this website.

All performances filmed are following the social distancing guidelines. Some shots might seem closer and suggest otherwise but rest assured this is just through using the zoom function on the DSLR camera we use for filming performances, in addition to a GorillaPod tripod. Enjoy!

Practice Evidence Submission

  • For GCSE students little has changed in the practice expectation. Students must continue to submit evidence each week of practice. Where this is usually covered by a parental signature, email or text to students' phones during the lockdown students will now be required to send recorded evidence of their practice EACH WEEK. Not all students will receive feedback from their music teacher but this will allow us to listen in to students and give advice and feedback where needed

  • It is recommended that students use an AUDIO recording app to record a minimum of 1 minute of their practice. Videos can be too large in size but for some students they might have to send a video, for example to show technique on a guitar technical exercise. This evidence might be part of a piece of music for a performance piece, or an example of a practice exercise, or scales, riffs or runs and anything relevant. Note that this is just the minimum length. Students might be asked to submit a whole recording of a piece they are working on. Comprehensive guidance on what students should be practising can be found HERE.

  • The two apps below work well for recording audio and allow for easy sharing of the files. Students can share the recordings from their phones or device/s to their teacher via Teams or email. For some students this will inevitably involve them sending via their personal email address/username. This is unavoidable but will always be sent to a school email address and through the school servers (dlaviolette@wrotham.kent.sch.uk). Both of these apps are FREE:

Performance Media Submission

This feature is very much a new 'trial' feature whereby we aim to still have GCSE and Key Stage 5 students submit performance material for both assessment and entertainment performances. Modern technology allows for students to quite easily record themselves performing and we can then take this media and using a DAW (Reaper) and video editing software (HitFilm Express) clean it up and have it ready for presentation on this website.

All students need to do is submit the performance

Checklist below to get a good recording:

Do not ignore these tips! Check that you are following each guideline one-by-one...

Intake 17 (Year 10) - GCSE Music Virtual Showcase 2021

Click HERE

Alfie Bainbridge Domination 271120 final video.mp4

Year 11 - solo performance

'Domination' by Pantera - solo electric guitar + backing track

During year 11 students must record and submit two performances - one solo performance and one as part of an ensemble. This is a solo performance.

This performance was filmed at the end of November in our new drama studio. The studio is huge, has plenty of space and lots of windows so we will likely use this space for recording and filming our year 11 performances that are to be submitted this year.

Intake 17 (Year 10) - Class Performances - Dec 2020

Click HERE

7F 12 bar blues 10 Dec 2020.mp4

Year 7 - 12 Bar Blues topic

Year 7 cover the 12 Bar Blues topic during term 2. Here is an example of the type of class assessment that they all take part in. You will see that the topic has various parts from a main drummer through to individual improvisation parts on keyboard.

Link to the topic HERE

9C Everything I Wanted Term 2 10 Dec 2020.mp4

Year 9 - Everything I Wanted

Year 9 do music once for one term only. They learn to play 'Everything I Wanted' by Billie Eilish as a class ensemble with guitar, bass, drum, ukulele, singing, piano and keyboard parts. Here is a filmed performance from a class at the end of term 2.

Link to the topic HERE

Joy of Life Trout in the Bath performance 17 Nov 2020 Including Audio Mix.mp4

Year 12 - Exploring Music in Context - Live Performance Adaptation

Our year 12s recently completed their first 'live' performance. Normally this would have been to an audience at lunchtime. However, we had to film this performance for you all to watch online. For this unit the students must perform several adaptations of music from a diverse array of contexts and backgrounds. This performance is an adaptation of an Irish jig. More details about this can be found HERE