End of the Academic Year!

It seems that this academic year has gone by both very quickly, and incredibly slowly… such is the life when so much of it is remote and online. It has been a pleasure to see students face to face when the situation has allowed, and despite all concerts being online, we have still achieved a number of exciting performances, including a collaborative online concert performance of Schumann’s ‘Frauenliebe und Leben’ by the Upper Sixth students, and a concert of Opera Scenes, largely achieved remotely. Both of these projects made me very proud of the resilience of my students, and their willingness to achieve a really high standard in the most difficult of circumstances. To top it all off, the latest set of ABRSM exam results arrived last week, and I am thrilled that between them my students achieved two excellent Grade 5 certificates, three brilliant Grade 7 certificates, and three Grade 8 certificates – all with Distinction marks over 137/150. These results are truly a representation of the hard work the girls have put in over the past months, and I am immensely proud of their achievements. Full details of the results can be seen here.
This year the school loses a huge cohort of very talented singers, and as ever I will miss them very much as they go on to the next stage of their lives. They have been wonderful ambassadors for music, and especially singing, and I believe that each of them offers the world a unique and brilliant set of talents and skills. I shall follow their progress with interest and much fondness. In this year’s ‘Celebration of Music’ the leavers offered some thoughts about their musical experiences at school, and some words of thanks to each of the teachers. This was – as it always is – both a lovely and humbling thing to listen to. I was particularly struck by one sentence offered by C, who said that she leaves school with a love of singing. What a wonderful summation of all a teacher can ever hope for – that students grow to love their subject, appreciate its worth, and develop their own passion for it to carry forward. Thank you to all these girls for very happy (and funny!) memories which I will treasure in years to come.