January 2024

Dear Trinity College London South Africa community,

I hope the year has started well, and wish you all the best for the remainder. The Trinity team is ready to help make it a productive and creative one. In 2024 we hope to partner with an ever-increasing number of teachers and performers to enhance learning outcomes. We aim to offer a personlized service, and a reasonable value-for-money exam experience. Our relatively large South African team, our locally priced exams, and multiple exams sessions throughout the year illustrate the extent to which we are committed to the South African performance arts community. Organising and running over 10,000 exams per year is a complicated business, and we're sure to drop the ball on occasion. If and when that happens the team will be here to help!

Exam entries are open in most centres, please contact your local rep if you need further information about dates, time, fees, and entry process. Much of this information is included in the newsletter below.

We are currently focused on distributing certificates from the Face-to-Face and Digital exams taken at the end of 2023. With no functional Post Office, distributing certificates in the larger centres is a significant challenge.  At the moment in the larger centres we tend to offer certificate collection from a central point, or a courier service at the teacher/parent/candidate's expense.

I'm aware some people feel certificates should be delivered at Trinity's expense as they were in the past, but this is no longer feasible with courier the only reasonable delivery option. Added to this is the fact that digital and face-to-face exam certificates arrive at various times throughout the year making it difficult to batch certificates for cost-effective delivery. These complexities, and a concerted effort to adopt a more sustainable way of working, have paved the way for the introduction of Digital Certificates. From 2025, certificates will by default be delivered digitally, with paper certificates available as an optional extra. There will be further detailed information about this change later in the year, but if you want to read more about Trinity's digital certificates now, please visit the Trinity website.

All the best for the year ahead.

Best regards,

Peter

Peter Borchers - Trinity College London National Manager for South Africa, Botswana and Namibia

peter.borchers@trinitycollege.com

Exam Fees 2024

The 2024 Drama, Music and Rock and Pop  fees lists have been published on the Trinity College London website here: https://www.trinitycollege.com/local-trinity/south-africa/exam-fees.

Please take note there are separate fees and pdf documents for Digital and Face-to-Face exams. 

2024 Face-to-Face Exam Dates

Music

Digital entries open all year round.

Face-to-Face will run in May/June and then in Sept/Oct/Nov. Download entries closing dates for your region here - https://trinitycollegeza.frontkb.com/en/articles/975489 

Rock and Pop

Digital entries open all year round.

Face-to-Face will run in Oct/Nov. Download entries closing dates for your region here - https://trinitycollegeza.frontkb.com/en/articles/975489 

Drama

Digital entries open all year round.

Face-to-Face will run in June (PE only) and then in Sept/Oct/Nov. Download entries closing dates for your region here - https://trinitycollegeza.frontkb.com/en/articles/975489 

Performance - Acting for Screen

Acting for Screen, our latest addition to the Performance portfolio, was launched late in 2023. Acting for Screen will cater to candidates aged 8 and above, offering three levels: Screen 1, Screen 2, and Screen 3. Acting for Screen is designed for candidates with and without prior acting experience and can be taken alongside our existing Acting qualification.

What is Acting for Screen?
Trinity’s Acting for Screen exams are designed to help candidates develop their skills for screen performance. Industry-aligned tasks enable learners to develop their vocal, physical, and character skills, alongside the technical skills of performing for camera.

Our Acting for Screen exams are:

• Recognised on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) at Levels 1, 2, and 3. The highest level, Screen 3 is on the UCAS tariff*
• Available for solo candidates at three levels: Screen 1, Screen 2, Screen 3, the three levels correspond to grade 1, grade 4 and grade 8, respectively.
• Flexible for teachers and candidates, with freedom to choose performance material that suits learning objectives, interests and reflects a candidate's playing age
• Digitally assessed
• Open to all age groups (8 years +)

Key features

• No specialist equipment needed, record on a smartphone.
• Designed for candidates with stage acting experience and newcomers alike. 

• Exam tasks reflect industry practice: auditions; showreels and self-tapes 

• Can be taken alongside existing graded Acting exams 

• Simple submission experience; upload of individual tasks via Submittable
• Candidates record and review multiple takes of tasks; no single exam day or recording.

When can candidates book these exams?
These exams are available for booking in January 2024.

Visit Acting for Screen pages for more details

Interview With Trinity's Head of Music

Andrew Eales, author of the well-known teaching, piano and book review blog, Pianodao, recently interviewed Francesca Christmas about Trinity's new Digital Theory system. If you're interested in finding out more about digital theory, it's a must-read article. Click here to read more - https://pianodao.com/2024/01/02/trinitys-digital-theory-grades/

Welcome to Trinity's piano podcast series

In this series, each week we sit down with a composer or arranger who has contributed to making Trinity's 2023 Piano syllabus, our broadest and most diverse repertoire offer ever. We explore their contribution to the syllabus, their musical journey and influences and what words of inspiration they might have for our teachers and learners.

Find out more here - https://www.trinitycollege.com/qualifications/music/grade-exams/piano/piano-podcast

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