Participating in extracurricular activities is an important stress reliever, particularly in our demanding final year at school, and as we place increasing importance on our wellbeing. I enjoy participating in the school choirs and singing groups, but the Rock Band is especially enjoyable because it is unique from the other music groups at the school.  

There are three Rock Band groups in the school, which I think is amazing as it allows for more people to join and also allows for different musical abilities. I'm in the first Rock Band, which is mainly composed of upper-school students, which is great because it allows Year 13s to interact with the lower sixth and form friendships throughout the school. 

One Rock Band highlight for me was when we performed a range of different songs at Pop Fest last May. Pop Fest was at Up the Creek Comedy Club in Greenwich, and it is an event like one of the school’s bigger concerts but with a ‘pop’ twist. We performed Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, the Electric Lights Orchestra Mr Blue Sky, and Supertramp’s Breakfast in America. It was an incredible opportunity to perform in such a mature and stylish venue. It was my favourite event at which we have ever performed, and I believe the energy of the live concert inspired us to give our best performance yet. We have also performed at numerous school events, which I have found to be both enjoyable and valuable in terms of networking. 

The most recent event we have performed at was the Step Up Into Sixth Form event. We got to meet potential future Sixth Formers which allowed us to connect and share our experiences at the school. We performed a relaxed and slightly smaller version of Rock Band in which I played the acoustic guitar, Eden played the piano while Eden, Zoe and I sang. We created a relaxing vibe to ensure the students looking around felt comfortable and asked them for song requests. We sang songs that were mainstream enough for people to sing along. It created a fun and relaxing vibe that I really enjoyed, we hope our future Sixth Formers thought so too. 

Written by Honey, Year 13, Head Student Team