What Makes a Top School for Performing Arts? (Music, Dance, Drama)
By Annabel Dunstan
SUMMARY
Many children dream of being pop stars, actors, professional dancers. For some, this is more than a passing daydream – it’s a genuine passion and talent. Music, Dance, and Drama provision varies widely from school to school, so how can we make sure that we’re choosing the best for a budding young performer? If your child is serious about performing arts (they’ve already achieved grades on multiple musical instruments, they’ve been attending weekly tap dance classes for years, or they’ve starred in the lead role in several shows outside school), then this article is for you. We lay out the key features of schools that do Music, Dance and Drama well, explaining the differences between mainstream and specialist approaches. With expert insight from Rod Jackson (Principal, Gosfield School), we offer you clear advice on what to look for, so that you can find a school where your young musician, dancer, or actor will thrive.
Mainstream vs Specialist Performing Arts Schools
First of all, let’s talk about mainstream vs specialist provision. Some schools market themselves as specialist performing arts schools – but what does this actually mean? What sets them apart from other schools, and what does an education there look like? The first thing to understand is that all schools are likely to offer performing arts in some capacity: Music, Dance, and Drama are on the National Curriculum up to age 14, and are frequently offered as options at GCSE and A-Level.
The difference with specialist schools is that the performing arts are core on the curriculum. Treated as centrally as Maths or English, they are mandatory subjects, with more time devoted to their study. Importantly, they are also taught as a means towards a professional career in the arts: a specialist performing arts education is pre-vocational training, a springboard onto the professional stage. If your child is fully set on being a pro (and has a real talent), a specialist school that directly equips them for this path could be worth a look – though keep in mind that a training-orientated education is very demanding, and not to be chosen lightly!
As well as an arts-focused curriculum and a vocational teaching style, performing arts specialists are more likely to offer bespoke timetabling for each individual student according to their developing niches. They may also have a greater breadth of sub-departments within the arts subjects, offering dedicated teaching in precise fields of expertise such as ‘classical ballet’ or ‘stringed instruments’ rather than just the broader umbrellas of Dance and Music.
All this said, there are some mainstream schools which also offer an outstanding performing arts provision. Although their primary focus is not to equip their students for a performing career (which isn’t the best-fitting approach for everyone anyway!), mainstream schools can still provide top-quality Music, Dance, and Drama teaching across a range of specialisms – and a mainstream education can still lead to a professional performing career, if that’s what your child wants. A mainstream school that actively values and promotes the performing arts can be just as valuable a choice for your child as a specialist school; despite their different approaches, the two options have a lot in common. You will even find some hybrid approaches, as Rod Jackson (Principal, Gosfield School) describes:
“At Gosfield, all children from age 2 to 18 have access to a broad and enriching curriculum of music, drama and dance, delivered by subject specialists during timetabled lessons within the school day. This is the vehicle that allows children who don't know their talents as performers to discover them. Several years ago we also launched our Performing Arts Academy, and this is the vehicle for both aspirational and inspirational training for those young people who aspire to perform professionally whose talents need to be honed at the highest levels.”
Look at each individual school’s offering. Ultimately, if you feel a school’s provision is a good fit for your child’s needs, it doesn’t matter whether it’s specialist or mainstream. With this in mind, the advice in the rest of this article applies to whichever schools you consider – specialist, mainstream or hybrid. The best schools have the same hallmarks.
Facilities That Make a Difference
One big aspect to consider in performing arts provision is facilities. All performers need a space in which to perform, and a strong performing arts school will have dedicated and well-maintained spaces for this purpose. Check out the site of each school you visit: do they have a theatre? A recital room? A stage with wings? Would the stage space permit a large-scale, big-cast performance? Would the auditorium accommodate a proper audience? Some schools might offer even more specialised spaces, such as a recording studio for mixing and producing musical tracks, or a versatile black box theatre for smaller and more experimental performances. These spaces enhance the student experience: a dance show performed on a real stage to a raked audience is more professional (and perhaps more fulfilling) than one performed in the same hall that the dining tables were just cleared out of. Performers also need to practise and train, and the top schools for performing arts have plenty of studio space for the actors and dancers to prepare for their shows, and well-kitted (even soundproofed) practice rooms for the musicians.
It may also interest you to consider the use of local venues: some schools, particularly those in London or near other cities, have partnerships with nearby theatres, concert halls, or cathedrals, and can offer students exciting opportunities to perform in big professional spaces. If this is something that excites your child, then school location could be something to bear in mind. As well as being inspiring for young performers, such opportunities can foster valuable links with the local community. As Rod Jackson remarks:
“What a wonderful experience for the school choir to perform a series of concerts at local old folks' homes! Performing Arts can be the cornerstone of the school's programme of community service and outreach.”
Resources and Equipment: Why Quality Matters
The next thing to look at is resources. A grand recital room is no good if the piano in it is a cheap electric one with sticky keys and a temperamental sustain-pedal. Look for high-quality, well-looked-after instruments, props, and technologies. Well-maintained resources are a good indicator that the school cares about the arts and is willing to channel funding and energy into these subjects – but of course, resources do more than betray attitude. Equipment matters because it is a practical necessity for your child doing the subjects. Your search should always be driven by what your child will need. If they act, enquire about the sound and light system in the theatre. Will your son be dazzlingly spot-lit in professional-level lights, or will he be left scuffling in the wings as he tries to share one of three radio mics amongst a cast of twenty? If your child is a musician, find out about the resources for their instrument. If your daughter’s a percussionist, see which bits of tuned percussion the school has; if she’s a guitarist, count the amps. It’s all about best fit – does the school have the right high-quality resources to support your child?
Expert Teachers and Specialist Tuition
So what about the teachers? Many schools employ experienced performers and practitioners of the arts as teachers. If your child dreams of a career onstage, the input of a teacher who has real industry experience can be both inspiring and equipping – perhaps look out for this. You could also investigate the level of specialism in your chosen school. Are Dance and Drama taught by specialists, or they mopped up as add-ons by the PE and English departments respectively? Does the Music department have a specialist woodwind teacher, brass teacher, singing teacher – or does one teacher have to spread themselves thinly across it all? Additionally, do the teachers’ specialisms line up with your child’s? Could your daughter do street dance here? Could your son learn the oboe? You can never rely on an individual teacher to remain at the school for your child’s whole journey (they might move away), but the performing arts are broad, rich subjects, and your child will need the right nurture within their niche. Consider the ratio of teachers to students too, which varies at different-sized schools. Especially if your child needs more support, or is developing a very particular speciality, they may benefit from opportunities for small-group or one-to-one tuition – find a school that has the personnel to support them well.
Opportunities Beyond the Classroom
Next, you should look at the opportunities on offer. These should always be guided by what your child is interested in doing, but you might look at the following:
- Clubs and groups – how strong is their orchestra, band, choir?
- Variety of performance types – will there be opportunity for serious plays as well as musicals? Group dance and solo dance? Chamber and orchestral playing?
- Variety of performance contexts – are there competitions? Internal recitals? Workshops? Masterclasses?
- External opportunities – do they run trips to professional productions? Could your child work towards a LAMDA or ABRSM qualification? Are there local/international music tours?
All these features – facilities, resources, teachers, opportunities – are easy to find out about on a school’s website. What a school has or doesn’t have is very concrete, and you can be quite practical, analytical, and data-driven in narrowing your field of suitable schools when looking at these factors.
However, at My Top Schools we are big believers that a school’s ethos and culture feed into everything they do – and the only way of really telling what a school is like is by looking around and meeting the people. We recommend you visit any school you’re seriously considering, especially for performing arts, because it’s by looking round in person that you can really gauge the culture: how many people are regularly getting involved in opportunities, how much care and effort goes into performances (from staff and students), and to what extent the performing arts are valued within the school community. Rod Jackson gives an example:
“As a Head, I also like to see older children leading clubs for younger children and groups of children using the Performing Arts centre as their space where they come at every available moment to rehearse, practise and just hang out.”
Such a lively arts culture can’t be measured through stats and facts – so visit, and if it feels like the kind of place your child will thrive in, it probably is. Trust your gut.
Don’t Be Swayed by Famous Alumni
Our final piece of advice for your performing arts school search is not to get too carried away with Googling famous alumni. Many schools proudly blazon lists of their most successful ex-students. Whilst there’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking pride in students’ successes – and it can be wonderfully inspiring to consider where an education at that school could lead – it can also be all too easy to blindly succumb to the allure of the name-drops from the past, rather than looking at a school for what it is now. The quality of a previous intake doesn’t define the school’s teaching excellence today, nor does it guarantee best fit for your child. Your child is a unique talent; take care to look for the school that will best provide for their needs.
Rod Jackson sums it up:
“My advice to any parent looking at the performing arts programme at a prospective school for their child is always: be ambitious for your child, expect the school to be ambitious for your child, and ensure the school has the right programme in place to work with you to ensure your child's love for performing and their talents are nurtured in equal measure.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Specialist performing arts schools offer intense pre-vocational training where arts are core – but excellence in the arts can be found in many schools, so search widely.
- Look at schools’ facilities, resources, teachers, and opportunities in the performing arts, always considering how they will meet your child’s particular needs.
- Culture is key – nothing beats visiting to get a feel for the Music, Dance, or Drama community in your chosen school.
ACTION – How to Find the Right School
Buzzing to get started? Download our guide or contact us today for more advice on finding top schools for performing arts.