Student Staff Liaison Committee
Departmental Updates
Tuesday, 25th January
12pm on Microsoft Teams

Students’ Union 

Christmas Festival Success
The Guildhall SU would like to thank everyone involved in the 2021 Christmas Festival, in particular the PV, AV, VDLP and Facilities teams for enabling the festival to run so smoothly! I would also like to extend thanks to our student project managers, Justin Anderson and Eve Clayton, and our Events Vice-President VP, Darcie Jago.

The festival was a fantastic success, in particular the Lakeside Carols/ VLDP Projections which was a lovely way to bring together students, staff and residents after a very tough 18 or so months of isolation. At the very end of the day our newly formed, Christmas Festival Orchestra led by Sam Gale, performed a fantastic concert for a (very) full Silk Street Music Hall.
You can check out a few videos from that concert on our YouTube channel, and the full selection of photos taken that day by Benjamin Reason on our website at http://www.guildhallsu.com

Events in Term 1
In Term 1, which is just 12 weeks, the Guildhall SU hosted 31 events, probably the most the SU have ever hosted in on term before! We wanted to bring back events with a bang and make up for the missed events over the pandemic, whilst also making every event (except ALCOPA – £5) free of charge. Here is the full list of events we hosted;

 Freshers Week – Opening Night, Courtyard Chill, Ceilidh Night, the Snaps Live Quiz, Freshers Fair, Barbican Pub Crawl, Charity Pride Night, Mature Students Drinks, Throwback Night, Boat Party & After party, Motown Night)
 Jazz Jams (Bi-Weekly all term)
 GSO Induction Concert After party
 DJ Night Part One and Two
 Guildhall Oktoberfest
 Julius Caesar & Emilia Wrap Party
 ALCOPA Halloween
 2020+2021 Graduation Party
 Earth Wind and Fire Tribute
 GSO After-Party
 Karaoke Night
 Abba Night
 Project Period
 Anna Karenina Wrap Party
 Guildhall Christmas Festival

This term has also allowed us to give many more opportunities for guildhall students to work in the basement tech team to gain experience working in live events, and the SU would like to thank all the member of the team who have worked over this first term!

Furthermore, a massive thank you goes out to Darcie Jago, our fantastically dedicated Events VP, Oli Rath our new Bar Manager, and the entire bar and security team.

Term 2 will be a little bit quieter throughout the exams and deadline period, but towards the end of the term 2 there will be a flurry of events coming to Basement. *See Events Poster.

Basement Refurb
Over Christmas, the Basement Bar got a new paintjob! I would like to thank everyone in the facilities department in particular Tom Alcott for his work in getting this new paint project up and running! As well as the paintjob, the lighting in the basement roof arches have now been completely re-fitted by Barbican Engineers to new LED lights.

The SU have also been upgrading the space in recent weeks by installing 3 new TV’s, refitting the festoon lights and getting the pool table a well needed refurb!

Updated Accommodation Guide 21.22
One of my goals this year as President was to provide more resources to help students find accommodation during their studies. Later in the term, Elle Oldfield (VP Welfare) and I will be filming an Accommodation Area video, where we will film all across London, which will hopefully help students make a decision into what area of London hey may want to view properties.

In the last week, I have also updated the Area Accommodation Guide, which includes quotes from student’s both current and alumni on their experiences in living in different areas across London. The guide is now on MyGuildhall.

Library

Temporary shorter opening hours
We will be closing at 5pm Monday to Friday until Friday 28th January, as part of the agreed School resilience plan for student-facing services for the first three weeks of term. Unless circumstances change in the next week in the School itself, we intend to resume opening
until 7pm Monday-Friday from Monday 31st January. Our updates are always made on our MyGuildhall pages and added to the library@gsmd.ac.uk e-mail signature, please keep checking in with MyGuildhall for the latest information.

Coming soon – look out for updates on MyGuildhall
We are continuing to make improvements to our eResource provision and will be
imminently offering access to two new products: Medici TV JAZZ – an add-on to our popular Medici TV streamed performance platform. This will be on a trial basis and will then be continued dependent on levels
of usage
– Art Song Transcriptions – for singers, accompanists, and repetiteurs. This is a
permanent addition to our portfolio of music eResources
– We will send out news releases for both these resources as soon as they go live.
There are also going to be changes to nKoda, which will initially only be rolled out to iOS users. The change in a nutshell is that the score library on which nKoda is based will be a separate app to the score reader software, which has been developed to handle many new features. We have yet to see the new versions ourselves, not least because the
Android/Windows products aren’t yet ready. We are assured that the change will improve functionality of both the score library and the reader apps, that the old and new versions will run concurrently for at least a year, and that switching over will be easy for existing
app users. More anon!

Staffing News
We have recently said goodbye to Rebecca Pain, who worked in the Library as Orchestral Librarian and then Senior Library Assistant, for fifteen years, and will be much missed by
us all. Joining us in her place is alumna Carla Satrustegui, who has worked for us as a Student Assistant previously. We are very happy to be welcoming Carla to the established Library team.

Access & Participation
Reporting and Regulation
On 24th November the Department for Education announced a ‘reboot’ of Access and Participation, requiring the rewriting of plans, renegotiation of targets and a change in direction for activity. This aligns with the appointment of a new Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students. As of yet, no further details have been shared, and so the School continues to work towards the commitments set out in our five-year Plan. Students will be updated once further information is received.

The Office for Students have delayed the annual reporting on progress towards Access and Participation Plan targets in light of the changes, with no timeline on when it will be required. However, work is underway to assess progress, and will be reported to the Board of Governors in February, at which point the update will be shared with students.

The Access and Participation 2020/21 Evaluation (circulated) outlines activity that was delivered from August 2020 – July 2021, and further detail on participants and the impact the activity had. This provides a rich insight into the success and challenges for the Access
and Participation team in this time, and will be provided alongside the statistical report outlined above, for further context – as ever, statistics are a very small part of the Access and Participation story.

Supported Application Scheme
This year we had 134 applicants on the scheme with 126 submitting an application to the
school. Of the applicants that did complete their application to an UG programme there
were:

• 99 Acting applicants
• 3 Production Arts pathway applicants (Design Realisation, Costume Management,
  Stage Management)
• 24 Music applicants – of the 24 we currently have 8 offers and 1 reserve and are working with those offer holders and music staff to organise consultation lessons
  and help answer any questions that might help them make their decision on where
  to study.
  We have already offered a range of workshops, Q&As and free tickets to applicants on the
  scheme and are now preparing for a full week sessions in our Festival of Support, which
  will run from February 10th- 17th.

IT
Sundial court wifi replacement
After several months of working with the city procurement team to pass through the costs for the wifi upgrade, we finally placed the order in early Jan. Hoping we’d be able to start the project shortly after, we have recently been informed by our professional services company that there is a manufacturing delay on the kit required and we may have to wait
another 2/3 months for it all to arrive. Our apologies, as we’d hope to get this installed and sorted in the next 4-6 weeks. We will keep you up to date of progress. Please continue to let us know of any areas discovered that do not have sufficient wifi coverage and we’ll endeavour to fix that on an individual basis.

Laptop loan system
The laptop locker loan system is gradually becoming more popular, yet the average uptake
is only 2 loans per day, where we have 12 laptops available. Please do inform your fellow
students of the availability of these laptops in case anyone is still unaware. Also, please do inform us of any software that might be of particular use on these laptops that isn’t so far installed.

Turnitin
As part of the wider Teaching and Learning Enhancement Strategy, the learning technologist team is performing an evaluation of the ‘Turnitin’ product, with its emphasis is on plagiarism detection and comparing assignment submissions against a vast database of
previously submitted student work, improving feedback to students on their assignment submissions via Moodle. It has been a standard piece of software used at UK universities for at least 15 years. 

Student Affairs
Wellbeing Hub
We have – in conversation with the SU, and with much appreciated technical support from the Marketing team! – created a new area on MyGuildhall. The Wellbeing Hub is offers a one-stop shop for information about Wellbeing initiatives at the School – find out about courses on offer (yoga, mindfulness, Alexander Technique) or about drop in sessions, such as:

• the Wellbeing Clinic with the Senior Health and Welfare Advisor, Hannah
  Goodwin (next session 26 Jan, 1-2pm)
• Study Skills drop in support with Study Skills Tutor, Catherine Cranston (next
  session 1 Feb, 12.30 – 2pm)
• NHS Sexual health clinic (next session 4 Feb, 10.30am – 12.30pm)

You can also find a list of the Wellbeing Ambassadors – staff from a range of departments who will meet on a regular basis to share ideas and best practice, and develop new wellbeing initiatives to promote students’ personal and professional development.

If you have any comments or feedback about the Hub, have an idea for a new wellbeing initiative, or would like to use the Hub to promote an activity you are already involved in, please contact Hannah Goodwin.

The Intersectional Self – a weekly group for students
This group was very well received last term, and it is running again for 8 weeks this term, starting 26 January – participants can join any time in the first 3 weeks (i.e. until 9 February)

What previous participants had to say:
“The Intersectional Self has been an incredibly enriching and valuable experience. It is a safe space for meaningful and thoughtful discussion, and for being open to others’ experiences as well as bringing our own. I have learned a lot about myself and my ways of interacting with others around me. Participating in this group has encouraged me to explore and be curious about myself in relation to others, and to bring this openness beyond into other spaces that I inhabit”. – Participant, 2021

Dates
Wednesdays from 26 January 2022 – 23 March 2022 (10.30 – 12.00)
Note: there will be no group on 16 February
Students can join the course any time during the first three weeks (i.e until 9 February)

About the group
This group will explore the many intersections (race, gender, sexuality, nationality, class) that comprise our sense of identity and form the basis of relationships with ourselves and others. It is a highly interactive community which requires a commitment to doing the work together.

The group is facilitated by Matthew Rich-Tolsma, a South African-Dutch organisational consultant, coach, and Nonviolent Communication trainer. He is co-founder of PlayScapes.

More information is available on MyGuildhall.

How to join
For more information or to sign up please email Matthew.

Accommodation Advice Resources
Our updated External Accommodation Guide, Cost of Living Guide, and Guildhall
Student Area Guide are available now on MyGuildhall! Special thanks to the SU and all the students who contributed to our new and improved area guide – this is now a fantastic resource providing an insight into what it’s like to live in different areas of London, which
we hope will support first years and new students in finding somewhere that fits their lifestyle and budget.

We have also created a new Facebook group – Guildhall School Students Accommodation Noticeboard.

This is a platform to share adverts from private landlords, and for students/ applicants to connect with potential flatmates. (If students still wish to receive adverts by email, please contact Julia Oliver).

Students are invited to contact the Student Life Officer (Julia Oliver) for guidance about accommodation issues – please continue to refer to MyGuildhall and the monthly Student News email for information about upcoming events.

Facilities
The new access control system upgrade is near completion and should be finished by the end of next week. We have experienced some issues with access, and functionality, but
believe those to be resolved any one with any issues should contact the duty Operations Manager, or Security.

The SU basement and bar area have been refurbished along with the entrance staircase, TV room, laundry room, and some improvements to the aesthetics and functionality of the bar

As part of a school wide sustainability project all lighting in Sundial Court has been upgraded to more energy efficient LED’s and all windows in flats and rooms have been fitted with draught proofing – these works will also extend to Silk Street, Milton Court and the Annex with works taking place over night.

Engineering
Roof works
We recently discovered, part of the roof structure in Sundial Court is in poor condition. We are also aware of a few flats that have suffered from water ingress potentially from the roof
and we have tried many things to resolve this but have not been completely successful. We are therefore starting a project, earlier than planned, to rebuild the structure and replace the roofing above the affected flats. You will start to see scaffolding in the courtyard in the
coming weeks. The scaffolding that has already been erected in the courtyard.

Energy
The energy saving project continues – windows in Sundial court have been refurbished to reduce heat loss and most of the lighting in Sundial Court and John Hosier has been refitted with low energy replacements. The lighting works are now continuing in Silk Street and Milton Court. Other works are also on going in the plant rooms.

Ventilation Heating and Cooling.
In the spring, we hope to commence a project aimed at improving conditions in Silk Street, Milton Court and John Hosier. There will be a lengthy period of investigations and design before the actual works can start next summer. The aim is work without disrupting normal
activities, so the works are likely to be spread out over several holiday periods.

Recording & AV
In the run up to Xmas R&AV have invested in further film kit to support screen acting classes. With more grip equipment, 4k cameras and field monitors we can closer replicate
industry standards. 2022 has been off to a flying start with an undertaking of the schools largest internal film concert production to date – Guidlhall Studio Orchestra’s Motown project.

As well as our jam packed schedule of broadcasts and recordings for the term we will be replacing our stock of zoom cameras, increasing quality of loan items to students and offering further training sessions.