East London School of Music and their Trinity private exam centre story

East London School of Music (ELSOM) have been offering Trinity College London exams to their students since 2016, becoming a private practical and theory exam centre in 2021. Fiona Pacquette, Music Director at ELSOM, talks about her experiences of running the exam centre and the impact it has had on their students.

I've had a long-standing relationship with Trinity spanning more than 25 years; one of my previous tutors introduced me to the Trinity syllabus during my early 20s. When I started teaching, I introduced Trinity to all of my private students, followed by ELSOM.

The East London School of Music is a classical music conservatoire for the community. Our main site is in Hackney (East London), our second in Plaistow (Newham) and our third site is in Tottenham (North London). We also have a Welsh branch of online students and other areas outside of London.

We started offering Trinity exams to our students in order to build their confidence and music skills, and for the students to receive recognition for their hard work. Prior to becoming a private exam centre, our students would travel to public centres in central London, which proved quite challenging for parents (especially working parents), getting their kids to the centres during weekdays after work. I thought it would be best to register our school as a private exam centre so that parents and their children would be more comfortable attending exam sessions in familiar surroundings.

The qualifications have had a significant impact in that they have helped our candidates build more confidence in their performance and delivery during exams. The flexibility of the exams encourages our candidates to be more creative by allowing them to perform one of their own compositions. We found the examiners to be very friendly and encouraging to our students which makes them less nervous, especially candidates new to exam settings.

The staff at ELSOM are incredibly proud of how hard the students have worked to achieve the results, which is a positive reflection on the tutors. The pass rate from 2016 to present is around 97%, something we are very proud of and has inspired other parents to enrol their children and young people as students of ELSOM. Receiving the status of Trinity Champion Centre for the second year running has boosted the morale of our current students, parents and staff, and, as a result, we were supported to host a celebration evening for our students where their Trinity certificates were presented to them by one of the Hackney councillors.

Last year, we were successful in our application to Trinity's Music & Drama Access Fund, which supports learners facing barriers to learning music and support them in taking exams. Two brothers who benefitted from the grant deserve particular mention because they have worked very hard to achieve the level they are now. They take their music very seriously and never gave up, and now they are studying for their Grade 7 and 8 exams taking place this autumn. ELSOM would like to thank Trinity for the support and progression of our students. Without the support, it would have been a struggle for some of the families.

You can find out more about ELSOM by visiting our YouTube and Instagram pages.

Find out more about becoming a Trinity private exam centre.