The new term begins on Monday 20th April and we hope all of our students and their families have enjoyed the Easter Break. We are very much looking forward to resuming lessons online and seeing our students again.
Online Lessons via Zoom
Those students having lessons online via Zoom will notice a slight change when logging in. After entering your Teachers ID and joining the meeting, you will be asked for a password. The password for all teachers is Stafford with a capital 'S'. Please see here for further guidance on logging in.
Students taking Guitar lessons with Nick will receive the link to the lesson via email as before, with all information included in the email.
Don't forget to set up your device so that the teacher can see you and your instrument clearly and please check the video and microphone settings to avoid any delay to the start of the lesson.
Concerts
The annual live band concerts held at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre on Sunday 8th March were a great success and we are so proud of everyone involved. We would still love to hear any feedback you may have for the shows. It helps us when preparing for future events. You can give us your thoughts here.
Concert Videos
We are pleased to now have the concert videos for each show complete and available to purchase. For the first time last year, we offered the videos as a digital download via We transfer. This was the preferred option amongst students and parents.
One of the benefits of making the videos available in this way is that we can produce them in Full HD, which we would be unable to fit on a standard DVD. This does result in a larger file size that will take some time to download onto a device, depending on internet connection speeds. As a guide, each concert is approximately 3.5GB and would take roughly 30 mins to download with a 15MB connection. Please also be aware of any 'download limits' you may have to consider. If you think this may be an issue, we can transfer the videos to your own USB drive once the music school reopens. Each concert video will contain the performances from each show as a separate video file.
If you would like to purchase a copy of the Concert Videos please fill out the order form on our website. The cost is £10 for one concert video, either 2pm or 4.30pm, or £15 if you would like both shows. We can accept bank payments only and a passworded link to download the video will be sent by email to the address given on the form. The video will be available to purchase as a download until 20th June 2020. After this time there will still be the option for us to transfer the video to a USB drive.
Exams
Due to the Corona Virus situation, all exams scheduled for last term were postponed or will be rearranged to take place via video link where possible. This term we are still hopeful that exams can take place in the traditional way. The closing date for Trinity & Rock School Exams is 25th May and we hope that exams can go ahead for both exam sessions in July. Further information will follow to those students currently preparing for examinations.
Thank You
We would like to once again say a huge Thank you for all the support we have received with the transition to online teaching. It has been lovely to receive photos and videos of lessons in action, we really appreciate you taking the time to send these to us. We are so thankful to be able to maintain the routine of weekly lessons and enable our students to continue to make progress and achieve their goals. It is so important in these uncertain times and the power of music can really help to lift our spirits and stay positive.
Please get in touch if you have any questions and we hope you are all keeping well and staying safe.
Many Thanks
Laura Thatcher
Principal
Stafford Music School