This Week at ELAM

This week has been another busy one for ELAM! 

We had a week jam packed with trips which started with Music trainees visiting our friends at UD about their brilliant Level 4 music course which is a great option for Higher Education with a big focus on industry.    We have some incredibly talented artists on our Games Design course and so the trainees made their way to the National Gallery to check out paintings by the great art masters to inspire their Games art even further - we can’t wait to see some of their future work.  Meanwhile Film and Television trainees took a trip to the Curzon to see the film British Lives. 

Our industry provision continued as Film and Television trainees were visited this week by Wislocki films who came to feedback on their current project work and were suitably impressed with the quality of what they have created.  We are fortunate enough to have the amazing talent agency UTA as a partner at ELAM and this week Music trainees were taken on a tour of  their London office where they were introduced to a number of agents during a Q&A panel and learnt more about what UTA does and how their agents began their careers working in the industry. They were then taught about the lifecycle of a deal and how agents go about securing gigs for artists.  A hugely beneficial day and big thanks to the team at UTA for their time.

For those of you who have been to ELAM you will know how important the downstairs breakout space is for our community.  It is a multi-purpose space and this week, Year 13 Games Design trainees were busy experimenting with the space and trying out multiple props to simulate carnival like games physically using nerf guns, targets, balls, hoops and other props to help improve their ideation process for the upcoming VR game jam and their final projects.  

And Music trainees are busy gearing up for their first external show of Year 13 (and only the second external showcase since the pandemic) which will take place at Rich Mix in Shoreditch on January the 29th.  We cannot wait to see the incredible talent that they will be showcasing in this night of original music - these truly are the ones to watch breaking onto the London scene - this is one not to be missed!  You can get your tickets here

In alumni news, as if a Brit award WIN wasn’t enough last year, FLO have done it again and been nominated for a Brit award for a second year in a row, this time for Best R&B act - this is a public award so please vote for our girls Stella and Renee! 

And our founder, Will Kennard has also been nominated for Song of The Year at the Brits! This follows Chase and Status’s Brit win last year - what an achievement.

Welcome To The New Term at ELAM

Happy New Year and welcome to a new term at ELAM!  We are back and excited to dive into the new term with many exciting things to look forward to over the coming weeks.

We kicked off the year with some great news, celebrating the success of some of our early entry GCSE resit trainees last Thursday!  Exams are daunting already but it  can be even more so to take one early and we were so proud of everyone who sat them and showed real courage and commitment.  So many trainees were incredibly close to passing and will undoubtedly thrive when they resit in the summer but we are happy to announce that five trainees passed Maths, two trainees passed English and we want to give a  special mention to the three trainees made two grades of progress since last summer and the six trainees who made one grade of progress - keep up the great work! 

Our first Future Focus Wednesday of the year took place this week and we welcomed back to ELAM, music alumni Salmah Dixon for an A&R masterclass.    Salmah successfully gained a job at EMI Records after completing her ELAM Universal work experience in 2022 where she made such an incredible impression on her team that they hired her as soon as she graduated from ELAM.  After finishing her role at Universal before moving on to Tape London where she now works.  Salmah gave feedback from an A&R perspective to a selection of tracks submitted by music trainees and her insight was invaluable.

We also welcomed some of  our partners from Ridley Scott Associates who joined us onsite to give feedback to the Year 13 Film and TV  trainees on the pre-production of their Branded Content projects.  It was great to see how impressed the team were with the work of our trainees and they will continue to mentor them, coming in for two further feedback visits later in the term.

The Year 13 Games Design trainees were back at Universal Music HQ today to get industry feedback on the briefs that they were set during the work experience programme that took place before Christmas.  The team at Universal were incredibly impressed with each and every trainee, not only by their standard of work but also their ability to present the intricacies and functionality of the work that they had completed for the brief.  Well done to everyone involved.

Huge congratulations are in order for two of our amazing Music alumni Grace Oluokun and Elise McQueen who were invited to perform at a prestigious event on Wednesday evening celebrating the UK release of the highly anticipated Bob Dylan film, A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet.  The event took place at the iconic Gibson Garage in central London and featured performances by emerging artists for an exclusive audience of industry professionals, influencers, and special guests—just a day after the film’s premiere!  Grace and Elise were each invited to sing two Bob Dylan songs and they left the audience absolutely mesmerised with their breathtaking performances, earning glowing praise from attendees throughout the evening. A massive well done to both for representing ELAM and showcasing your incredible talent.

We also want to say a big thank you to Music alumni and KWN who was interviewed on BBC Radio 1Xtra this week and gave a special shout out to ELAM and its role in her progression as an artist, proudly stating, “they are an incredible, incredible college”.  KWN is absolutely smashing it on the music scene right now with her own releases as well as multiple features on the tracks of global superstars including Kehlani, who she will be supporting at her London show at the end of this month.  Big love KWN!

In other industry news, the start of term saw the launch of ELAM's annual mentoring programme which kicked off this month and will continue until May 2025.   Our mentor programme has been running since we opened in 2014 and is one of the most transformative experiences for our trainees, with many of the mentor relationships leading to further opportunities beyond the programme.  We received 60 applications from trainees and mentors, all hailing from the Music, Games and Film industries and we are so excited to watch the incredible work that will take place over the next 4 months!

It's the end of term! Merry Christmas from everyone at ELAM

It may be the last week of term but ELAM trainees have still been making the most of every opportunity as always!  After the excitement of last week’s tour of Universal Music’s Engine room, Games Design trainees kept up the momentum with a trip to ELAM partner, Sports Interactive, the company behind the highly successful Football Manager game, where they were given a tour of the games studio.  Trainees got the opportunity to speak to many staff in a range of positions to gain a better understanding of the different roles that exist in a games studio.  Following the tour, trainees were set a micro one day brief where they were required to come up with an idea for a mini game that could take place within Football Manager, followed by a pitch to the staff.  All trainees impressed the team enormously with their creativity and pitching skills.  

Meanwhile, on Wednesday  we invited A&Rs from independent record labels to come down to ELAM and watch some of our  talent from Years 12 and 13.  Rappers, producers, bands and solo performers all got the opportunity to showcase their work.

We also began to get into the festive spirit as we enjoyed a traditional Christmas lunch lovingly prepared by our wonderful Nicola and Georgina in the canteen. 

We concluded the week and celebrated the end of term with our Values Award ceremony which saw trainees recognised for demonstrating and embodying our ELAM values of Collaboration, Reflection, Resilience, Independence, Dependability and Inquisitiveness across the term.  Well done to all the winners.

And there was more success for our alumni as fresh off the stage at U Music, our beloved Stella and Renee from Flo were special guests on the Graham Norton show where they stunned with another amazing performance.

Wishing everyone who celebrates a wonderful Christmas and new year and a much needed break for all.  We’ll be back in January with more news and updates.  Happy Christmas everyone!

Welcome to the ELAM blog!

Welcome to our brand new ELAM blog.  Every Friday you can expect all of our news and updates about what has been happening at ELAM.  We hope you enjoy it!

The past two weeks have been all about industry at ELAM.  We were fortunate enough to be invited to take part in our founding partner, Universal Music Group’s brand new Amplify U programme.  Amplify U is a pilot scheme which brought together young people from across 5 organisations, ELAM, Brit School, Small Green Shoots, Limitless and Cat’s Mother for two weeks of incredible work experience.  40 of our Music and Film and Television trainees have spent the past two weeks working across five departments on live industry briefs as well as having talks from external industry leaders including a full day session with Stevie Wonder’s manager!  They also spent a day at iconic London venue Roundhouse where they were treated to an industry panel and Q&A exploring how to produce a live event - they heard from industry leaders from WME, The Royal Albert Hall, Precise Live and Roundhouse.  The day culminated in an exclusive invite to U Music, Universal’s annual celebration and Christmas party.  The highlight was a live performance from the one and only Flo where we saw our two beloved music alumni, Stella and Renee, absolutely dazzling with their performance.  And the work experience wasn’t just for film and music trainees.  The whole of Year 13 games trainees joined them last Friday for an exclusive tour of The Engine Room, Universal’s internal creative studio where they were given a live brief and will return next year to have their work reviewed by the team.  The two weeks culminated in a celebration event where ELAM rapper N3 and alumni Norika performed.

In other news, this week we are so proud of our music alumni Layyah, who after seriously impressing all of the judges for the past six weeks was crowned the winner of BBC’s Rap Game and impressively is the first female winner of the show.  Huge congratulations Layyah.  She follows in the footsteps of music alumni Ruben, J Clarke who was also a finalist on the show two seasons ago.

Finally, on Wednesday we also hosted our annual careers carousel event for current trainees wishing to explore career options available to them post-ELAM.  The event welcomed over 14 universities and higher education providers, industry professionals from many of our partners including Ridley Scott Associates, Universal Music Group and Sports Interactive, and ASK Apprenticeship Service.  What a week!