“It’s more important than ever that we keep relevant, we keep pushing through and keep our music students buoyant”

Gemma Martino Head of Music at Farlingaye High School in Suffolk shares her lockdown experiences and tells us what she did to keep music alive at her school.

“It was clear straightaway that we were going to have to approach teaching in a different way. The first lockdown happened almost overnight, so we faced a whole new set of challenges. How were we going to keep students interested and focused? How could we ensure learning occurs and the students could not only have access to it but buy into it too?

Keeping the students motivated was our main priority, especially for the exam groups.

Our Year 13 and 11 students have suffered the most; their final music tour was cancelled, and they left without being able to have any of the normal musical or extracurricular opportunities.

The first thing I did was develop a playlist of songs. I recorded a song in my kitchen and I encouraged all my students to record one too. We added harmonies, helped them ‘mix’ and develop their songs and also established a virtual choir. The playlists also showcased A Level composition work, Music Tech projects and original work as well as covers.

After that I reached out to some of our alumnae, who were former music students at the school. I asked them ‘what did we do right when you were at school?’ ‘What worked?’ I was able to promote some of the music they were still making, and they were very motivating for our younger musicians, helping them with the tech as well.

We made a video of our Christmas concert, marketing this through our website and on our YouTube channel and also sent this to local nursing homes for them to enjoy too. Though some of this was virtual we did actually perform – adhering to social- distancing rules – on stage.

During the second lockdown the school had greater expectations. We had to teach ‘live’ lessons, but it was hard to engage students. Not being able to see them, we couldn’t tell if they had ‘switched off’ or not.

We kept it relevant with lots of popular music, B-tech work, analysis and listening. We were able to keep all our peripatetic music lessons going throughout the second lockdown, which has meant students being able to access the ABRSM/TRINITY/ROCK and POP exams on their return. This has helped us keep students performing.

Recently we have connected with Jesse Quin, the bass player from the band, Keane. We’re planning a trip this summer to the Old Jet Arts Centre to meet him for a Q and A session. The band has kindly donated a mixing desk and other music equipment worth £2,000 for our students. We were delighted that our visit and their donation was on our local BBC news.

We all know there’s been budget cuts in creative arts, so we need to start marketing ourselves in a different way. It’s more important than ever that we keep relevant, we keep pushing through and keep our music students buoyant.