Dear Trinity College London South Africa Community,
In many respects the month of May is when things shift into gear for the Trinity SA team. The early Theory session ran successfully in all centers across the country, and the first of our face-to-face Music sessions begins next week! We're lucky to have Chris Bennett performing the majority of the examining for this session. Chris, a strings specialist, hails from Cornwall in the UK and is looking forward to interacting with our growing student community. You can read Chris's bio below.
We tend to focus on Music more than the Drama syllabus, simply because the student numbers are higher. But I'm very happy to report this month's big news is the release of the updated Drama syllabus. The aim is very much to simplify and consolidate the multiple Drama syllabi, creating a common approach across the face-to-face and Digital offerings. We've written more about it in the newsletter below, and I encourage all Drama teachers to attend the London hosted webinar next week. And to submit any questions you have prior to the session. The new syllabus comes into effect on Sept 1 and so it will impact the drama sessions taking place later in the year. This makes it particularly important for teachers to join the webinar next week so that we can raise any questions and/or concerns about the switchover in good time.
Trinity College London's Music strategy is to become broader, more inclusive and embracing of a wider range of types of teaching and learning, recognizing that music education is evolving and musicians now develop their skills in a range of new ways. I was lucky enough to join last weekend's workshop of the Johannesburg branch of the SA Society of Music Teachers, at which we explored three areas in which Trinity's music strategy is being implemented; namely the change in approach to repertoire releases, the new 2023 Piano syllabus, and the development of a new Digital exam format. These are all very exciting developments and will be expanded upon over the coming months.
Thank you from the entire Trinity SA team!
Best regards,
Peter Borchers - Trinity College London National Manager for South Africa, Botswana and Namibia
We are very pleased to tell you about some exciting improvements that we’re making to our Drama exams taking effect from from September 2023.
The syllabus specifications for our grades and diplomas have been improved and are now available to download on our website - Visit our website to find out more!
Having listened to feedback from our customers, we are streamlining the experience for teachers and candidates. The requirements for face-to-face and digital exams have been combined into a single reference document for each subject, and we have redesigned the Key Skills tasks.
We would like to invite you to join us for a webinar about the changes, where you will also have the opportunity to ask your questions, and gain any outstanding clarification on the specifications. This webinar aims to equip reps, teachers, and educators with the necessary information to ensure a smooth transition and successful implementation of the updated drama syllabus specifications.
Next steps: Please submit your questions via the online form HERE, by Monday 29 May. We will respond to all questions submitted to us in the webinar, therefore, please submit your questions even if you cannot attend.
Key details of the webinar: Date: 1 June 2023 Time: 17:00 GMT We kindly request all participants pre-register for the webinar by 29 May 2023. Please register HERE.
Teacher Preparation for Trinity Drama Exams
Our Drama teachers are a forward-thinking bunch, and sure to have their thoughts turned towards students' exams and their own level of preparedness. Sue Clarke, Trinity's UK National Development Manager for Drama, shares her 8-week countdown with top tips for preparing for Trinity Drama grade exams.
Join Our Rock and Pop Webinar - June 20th
One of Trinity's leading Rock and Pop experts and evangelists, Toby Davies, has asked to run a small focused webinar with Rock and Pop teachers and schools in SA. The session will run onTuesday June 20th at 3:30pm. There are still a few places available and we would love anyone currently using the syllabus, or simply interested in whether it could be a good choice for students, to join and put your questions to Toby. Toby will give specific details about the differences between syllabi, and which students it's well suited to.
The TCL SA team would like to thank the South African Society of Music Teachers Johannesburg Centre for the opportunity to speak at their recent workshop. It gave us the chance to discuss a host of exiting upcoming developments including:
New 2023 Piano syllabus coming in August,
The introduction of a new type of digital music exam launching in July,
Preparations for the launch of the Digital Theory exam platform,
Launch of an exciting new online Teachers directory
Each topic could have an entire newsletter dedicated to it, which will be the case from next month when we'll focus on the new approach to repertoire releases and provide more information about a new alternative Digital exam format.
The Johannesburg SASMT meeting was a lively engaged discussion and it was particularly rewarding to hear how much the Trinity syllabus is valued by the teachers present. We hope that this is the first of many such engagements and we will re-run this session as an online webinar in the next month or two.
Please email Peter if you would like a copy of the presentation. We plan to either release a recording of the meeting or to run it again as a Webinar. Here is one of my favorite slides, announcing the new Music Teachers Directory Trinity is launching in SA in the next couple of months.
The early music face-to-face exam sessions starts next week, and will be examined by Chris Bennet.
Born into a musical family in Truro, UK, Chris studied piano, violin, and viola before attending the Royal Northern College of Music. He returned to Cornwall in 2010 and established a successful string and piano teaching practice. He is a sought-after accompanist and choir conductor, performs as a violist, and has extensive experience in orchestras. Chris has been an examiner for Trinity College London since 2019 and was appointed to the prestigious Diploma panel in 2022. Download Chris's full bio here.
Update Your Details
Please forward to interested parities. It's useful to have your "SA Province" specified and tick the box allowing TCL to send you occasional newsletters like this one.
Don't forget to follow our new social media accounts. They are growing nicely and we look forward to sharing more inspirational tips and SA specific stories and events.
Also don't forget the #meandmycertificate ‘campaign’. We've already started receiving celebratory pictures, like those below posted on our Facebook page, of proud students, and we're delighted to share them. Please send pics of your students with their certificate to marketing@trinitycollege.co.za. Congrats to Rebaone and Megan shown in the following pics.
