Talent Show & Award Ceremony 2021

I can honestly say we had the best fun ever! As a group, and for the first time in the North London Ukulele Club's history, we decided by democratic vote to run our event as a competition with proper medals and trophies. I was a bit nervous that the idea might put some students off but participation was even more enthusiastic than ever and all participants earned a lovely award and made fantastic history together.

All students put in great work preparing covers as well as original songs and creating their self-tape entries. During the Zoom live group session we could watch each other in a relaxed mood, there was time for a fun icebreaker game at the start and for the award ceremony at the end. I also made a video play list available as a private link on my You tube channel so you could also go back and watch the live event recording as well as each individual video entry. To see the reaction of my students being presented with each individual award was priceless. All were so proud of their own achievement and learned so much in the process. I am extremely pleased and proud of myself that despite the massive pandemic's challenges in the last 18 months, my students have greatly honoured their online learning opportunity and I have managed to put my IT and Zoom expertise to brilliant use, if I may say so myself. This has enabled us not only to continue our fun ukulele sessions but also to develop a strong, helpful and productive bond between us. A few new students had actually joined our 1:1 and 2:1 Zoom classes during the first lockdown at the beginning of 2020 while others had stayed on, moving from face to face into Zoom. The youngest member was only still 5 years old (and a bit) so essentially still a 'Ukulittle' when he transferred into Zoom and he has flourished and loved each and every one of his music sessions and has made huge consistent progress. Some students have even asked me to keep going through the summer months and others are returning next week with the beginning of the school autumn term.

I want to extend my gratefulness to all the mums and dads who have been and are relentlessly supporting our lessons, passing on materials, tuning ukuleles, communicating via WhatsApp, setting up screens and tablets or dealing with the occasional wi-fi issue and always coming out on top! We truly could not do it without you!