Winter Concert 2025

Winter Concert 2025

Uplifting, joyful, incredible. This school has a special magic - if you could bottle it, it would transform schools across the UK.

- parent/carer attendee

As the cold Winter nights began to bite, we had the perfect tonic – the Isleworth & Syon Winter Concert – a perfect event for spreading some warmth during December. This is one of our annual festive traditions – an event that has been going for as long as any of us can remember! Superbly led by Mr McKeever and Mr Tapastau in the music department, we were delighted to have our biggest crowds ever for this free event. The hall was packed to bursting, both with people and festive cheer!

Over 80 students featured either on stage or behind the scenes during this feast of music and drama. The theme was ‘Thinking of Others', reflecting our wish for students to use their creativity for good in the world. It was fantastic to see some of our superb musical groups given the spotlight, including rock bands from Years 7 and 9 as well as the Wind Band bringing orchestra back! Special mention should be given to the Year 10 band, made up of GCSE students who had mostly never performed on stage before; they were brilliant. We also spotlighted the I&S Brentford Crew ahead of their performance a few days later.

The concert also gave centre-stage to some superb solo efforts, including Sam Gilmour’s original interpretation of a classic piano piece. There were also original drama pieces plus the school final of the Performing Shakespeare competition - shown in picture six above, taken by Year 12 student Lilian Simkesh. And that was all leading up to the spine-tingling finale, with all students involved in a huge singalong of ‘Let Them Know It’s Christmas Time’ that almost took the roof off!

Well done to every single student involved. It is a cliché to say that ‘it takes a village’ but it is appropriate for these complex productions. At a time when the arts in schools are declining nationally, we continue to invest an incredible amount of time, money and resources into our performing arts department. We do this in the knowledge that our students receive a truly well-balanced, creative curriculum and, aspirationally, some may choose employment pathways in the performing arts. Indeed, students greatly appreciate the transformative impact the creative arts has on their personal development. The audience feedback below speaks for itself – it was a truly special celebration.