This year we brought the Digital Creative Arts Advent Calendar back for its second year after making its debut in 2020. Involving 25 performances with over 150 performers, it was a mammoth task that took a team, a lot of admin and lots of talented students, but a task that was definitely worth it.

I was lucky enough to run the calendar this year, as a year 12 student, who was involved in the first calendar in 2020 when I was in year 7, in the Girls Choir (that consisted of 3 members at the time!). My inspiration to restart the project came very unexpectedly, when a friend sent me the post I was in from the initial calendar, and I thought- why not do it again? I think that this version of performing (via a recording, rather than an in-person performance) can be less daunting, especially for younger students, like I was in year 7, making it a great opportunity to showcase talent from across the key-stages.

I launched the project in early October of 2025, putting a sign-up sheet in the music department. After many, many emails to students, staff and music teachers, I began to get a steady stream of interest and students signing up. I have to admit, initially, I was slightly worried that I would not get enough students to take part to fill out a 24-day calendar- however, to my surprise, I ended up having an influx of interest and had more performances than I needed!

The hard work really began once I had all of my performers, as I had to begin the seemingly, never ending stream of admin that came alongside a school-wide project like this. Alongside Mr Holmes, I liaised with students and staff and arranged filming slots for each student and ensemble. These took place during form times, breaks, lunches and prep times throughout November and into early December. One thing that I set out to do when I began the project, was to learn how to use the video and sound equipment and help record some of the performances by myself. Although at first I did find using the equipment tricky, with the help of Mr Holmes and some patient students, I managed to fulfil my aim.

This year we had a fruitful mixture of performances, with many solos and ensembles, with a few duets, trios and student-led ensembles, with students from every year group getting involved. It was not only musicians who featured in this iteration, we had poetry, writing produced by playwrighting scholar, Charlotte Newing, student-led acapella quintet, and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ delivered by the GCSE Music students. We even made a tribute to the original calendar by posting a staff piano trio performance that featured in the 2020 version. (Day 22)

I would like to thank Mr Holmes for supporting me with this project, who has taught me such valuable skills that I hope I can transfer to other endeavours, Ms Nerwan for her help with creating the graphics and designs for the posts, Mr Stanworth and Mrs Brazendale for their assistance in organising the ensembles, all music and LAMDA teachers for supporting the students and finally, all of the talented performers who took part. This would not be possible without them. I hope to see the calendar up and running again next year, and possibly for years to come! All performances from this year’s calendar can be found on the Gordons Music and Gordons Creative Arts Instagram pages below:

Gordons Music: gordons_music

Gordons Creative Arts: gordons_creativearts

– Kate