Autumn / Winter 2025 Music

Mine is 13 as well, not 14 until the end of June. From her Inspire day she was very much one of the youngest. Not quite sure what I think about sending her at the bottom end of the age group. More because of making friends than any other concerns. She's pretty independent and has been away a lot on other residential, but usually within a closer range of ages.

My DD has been asked to the brass residential but it’s also in Blackpool. I wonder if they will all be at the same accommodation? She’s 13 so no experience of NYO residentials before either.

Yes, the woodwind one in Blackpool

Does anyone have experience of them on here? I have seen general chat about the pros of Inspire on a separate thread but was wondering what the Blackpool woodwind one is like? DD enjoyed the day in October

Checking in after a long gap. Younger DD did her grade 7 this morning but it was apparently bad. She’s usually a pretty good judge so she may not have passed! She’s also decided to my massive surprise that she wants to audition for our regional youth orchestra. She only does things she wants to do so I have given up suggesting anything to her! She’s decided that she wants to try an orchestra with a different conductor to their director of music.

Are the odds astronomical? DD has hers coming up at the end of the month, and I couldn't find any information at all about how many places are available in the choirs or how many auditions they're holding.

Has anyone else had an email inviting their child on the NYO Inspire residential in February half term?

Would "I don't know" count as three or four words? 😂

Glad it’s not just us! Dd was a bit deflated after her lesson. She’d been building up to singing “Think of Me” for ages. That top C at the end is tough - even without nerves clogging the throat! I was very proud of her anyway.

She’s gone into chamber choir this morning very aware that, as the choir director was in the concert audience, she can no longer complain about the top As in the anthem!

Mine hated being asked any of those questions with the extra '... in more than three words'.

"so what do you think went well?"

Killer...

Dd also hates “have you tried using the suggested fingerings?” 🤣

The most terrifying question for me is "why did you not practise your scales?" 😂🤦‍♀️

Does anyone else think “how do you think your performance went” is the most terrifying question a music teacher can ask their pupil?? Dd just dies a little each time. She did a vocal concert this week and her teacher asked her that question and then after dd stammered out her awkward non-answer said “I thought you sounded really tired. Are you tired?” Ouch! Poor dd.

In my entirely amateur (and biased!) opinion I thought she nailed it!

FWIW I've realised over the years that people with ND don't really have to follow the "standard pathway" and it's worth exploring other options that people rarely think about. DS had to drop Economics GCSE due to his dyspraxia, he basically couldn't write fast enough for the essay component. I was really stressed about that, but he actually did MFL GCSE as an independent candidate instead and it was surprisingly easy for him and not a huge problem to organise. He also found iGCSE much better structured if you can choose or do as an extra.

DS also sat American SATs when they were still available, it was also very easy for a high functioning ASD person. His SATs were actually accepted by Russell Group unis so he had unconditional offers from some of them even before A Level results.

Our friends with younger children with ASD have been homeschooling and their DC took GCSE at 14-15 with really good results, it's perfectly doable even for lab based subjects.

You know your DS's strengths and there may be options out there that would work better for him.

@Ubertomusic @Londonmummy66 it’s such a tough time isn’t it even without neurodiversity thrown into the mix. DS is doing 9 GCSEs - he dropped his only foreign language in year 10 shortly after diagnosis so he could have sessions with the SEND lead. It’s hard as he’s fairly certain he doesn’t want to study music beyond A-level so needs to keep his academic options open. However, he also recognises music is his strength (plus he’s on a scholarship) so it’s hard finding the balance.

@amr78 - sending sympathy - GCSEs are brutal for SEN pupils. DD1 is ADHD (not diagnosed until conservatoire) dyspraxic and dyslexic and she found years 10 and 11 gruelling. Not least because she was only interested in music so was not going to drop it in favour of academics regardless of what her teachers thought. JD was the only thing that kept her sane.

My advice would be not to overload on the number of GCSEs taken - 8 or 9 is plenty and better to get 8/9 to the best of his ability without being totally burnt out at the other end.

Sorry to hear it's been hard for your DS @amr78 , as a parent of a young man with ASD I can totally sympathise. It'll take time for the whole family to re-adjust after the official diagnosis, even if you've known for years. For teenagers, it may be even harder as even without any conditions they are normally trying to figure out who they are and find their place in life. It'll come. I know of quite a few musicians on the spectrum (DS is not musical though), sometimes I feel like it's kind if normal to expect some ND when you see a talented young musician, even though it's not universal of course.

changeofname I'm sure they won't suddenly have made a huge proportion of A level about dictation, it's pretty niche as skills go! DS isn't doing music for A level but has also just got his first set of year 12 predicted grades, his are also based on whatever random bits of syllabus they've studied and been tested on. Sure it will all even out by the end of y12.

It’s been a little while since I posted on here. Unfortunately, an immensely challenging few months with DS(15) following his Autism and ADHD diagnosis. His music has taken a massive hit as he’s so exhausted from masking in school and the increasing academic demands. We’ve had to cut down to alternate week instrumental lessons and he now barely practices at home. His autism also means that auditioning for high level ensembles is out of the question because they generally involve residentials which he finds difficult socially. Thankfully, he got his grade 8s out of the way in year 9 and 10. Despite these setbacks, he blew us away last night with his beautiful playing in a small ensemble in a school concert. A real ‘wow’ moment. He’s planning to study A-level music and his head of music is being hugely supportive and encouraging. Hopefully, once GCSEs are out of the way, he’ll find the time and mental energy to give to his music again.

Anyone in here know a lot about music A Level? DD2 has had her first lot of A-Level music tests for predicted grade and was stressing massively about the dictation. Looks like the test was out of 25 and 10 marks were on dictation – which seems to be where you hear an unknown bit of music and write it down.

She's in the top set for music at school (and it's a music specialist school) and doesn't have perfect pitch where most do - and most in her set did GCSE two years early too whereas she joined too late for that.

So she thinks she's rubbish compared with her form, because some people are just getting full marks on dictation with no effort, where she’s getting 6/10.

However, when I looked up the mark scheme for the actual A Level it looks like this is about 4% of the entire A-Level – so I don’t really know why all the tests are on this and none on essays etc. It’s really skewing her perception of what the A Level is about. And she's excellent at essays.

How much does dictation really matter? Anyone know – she will try to get better at it but I’m wondering really how much of her time needs to be spent on this.

Thanks for checking. I had a feeling it was mid November but if they are still auditioning then yes we wouldn't know. There must be thousands of applications. Our chances are very slim

Hi. Does anyone know about National children's choir timelines. I know that people in musical circles like you are often in the know about these things. ? It would just be great to know when we'll hear back even if the chances are very very slim.