Since last March, we have engaged with the majority of students through the use of online platforms like Zoom and Hangouts.

For many parents, this remains the perception of online education. Indeed for many teachers, it was feared that this method would greatly impede their ability to drive a meaningful program of learning, but that is not what happened.

Some of us had been working with online teaching models already. Colourstrings teaching is available online directly with Helsinki. There are a series of prepared videos that are sent to teachers to work with and then a face to face online lesson follows. This became the inspiration for the work we undertook in the school.

About 80% of all students were to take up on lessons online. They received classes from teachers in a scheduled fashion, but then, in most cases, there was access to additional video work which detailed aspects of the teaching and gave students additional tools for their practise at home.

What we discovered was that students are so accustomed to using virtual media that they adapted to this system almost overnight.

Practise became more efficient as students and parents now had clear reference material, and we have just recorded our highest ever scores in RIAM exams. That has been a revelation. After 10 years of teaching, in the midst of our greatest crisis, nearly 70% of all students score marks of 90% and higher.

So what did we learn? We certainly found that homework improved immensely as the quality of the reference material was so much higher, so students made fewer mistakes in their learning, which meant they stayed more engage and made more rapid progress.

In some cases, parents took a greater interest in practise now that they too had clear objectives and comparisons to work with.

We also discovered that the arts practise response globally was to release huge amounts of resources for students and teachers. In effect, there is material available now from some of the most famous teachers in the world online for the very first time.

Even more exciting, we have re-connected with professional friends in foreign countries who will once again offer lessons through the school to our students.

So by curating this material and adding to it in a tailored way we believe we can now offer a level of quality we ourselves questioned when this all began. It is a quantum shift in perception of what is possible and though it will not be the only method we employ for the year ahead we do look at it now with fresh eyes. No matter where we end up once Covid is supressed, the way in which we teach is now different.

In many ways Covid simply accelerated a process that was already beginning. Musicians all around the world now speak to each other differently and share material in a way that will not be reversed and this is truly for the betterment of us all.