Choosing a school for a talented child

If you decide - usually with encouragement from teachers or other educational experts - that your pint-sized prodigy is not suited to 'ordinary' schools but needs the hot house environment to realise their full artistic potential, what does that mean?

 

It means attending a school where the arts aren't merely seen as extras but actually constitute a sizeable slice of the educational cake. It means harmonising the three Rs with a full musical programme, creating a pas de deux of ballet and biology, learning lines as well as chemical formulae. It's a lot to ask anyone to take on - let alone an eight-year-old. But it can, and undoubtedly does, work.

For all parents, choosing the right school is a hard task. You can thumb through glowing prospectuses, read between the lines of inspection reports, make personal visits and get an honest, in-depth - though by its very nature, partly subjective - warts 'n' all overview from our own worthy organ. But only time and experience will really tell whether your choice - be it private, state, or specialist - is right in the long run. Add to that the pressure of making possible life-moulding decisions for our children in the case of specialist arts schools or stage schools and you quickly begin to realise that the earlier difficult choice borders on the near impossible.

Playing your part - Finding out about and choosing between the offerings

The Good Schools Guide online covers a large number of excellent specialist stage, music and arts-orientated schools. Let's take one such school as an example. Manchester's Chetham School of Music achieved specialist status over 30 years ago.

Roughly one third of the daily timetable now has musical overtones; be that music lessons, practices, orchestral work or whatever.

Without question, that's a hefty chunk of the school day but does that mean academic subjects take a back seat? Not a bit of it, as it happens. Although the number of subjects sat at exam level tends to be smaller (around 7 GCSEs and 2 A levels) the results are still impressive. This is due in part, no doubt, to the small class sizes (average 15) but even more, it seems, a more accurate indication of the highly motivated attitude of the youngsters themselves.

Then there's the Yehudi Menuhin School in Cobham, Surrey. With just 65 boys and girls aged 8 to 18, compared with 293 at Chetham's, there is an obvious difference. And yet outwardly they appear to offer the same all-round education with clear emphasis on musical tuition. Here latest figures reveal a 100 per cent A-C success rate at GCSE although, once again, fewer subjects taken to exam level highlights the real focus of the school.

So what is the major difference between these two hugely successful, world-renowned schools of musical excellence? It must ultimately come down to size and how that affects pupils' social as well as educational upbringing. While Chetham's size allows it to still feel like a 'normal' school, Menuhin's limited numbers put it firmly in a class of its own - many fewer children of your own age.

Obviously this kind of consideration won't be a problem for all but it's certainly a point to weigh up when looking at your options. After all, there's so much more to education then just study - whatever form that study might take.

Cost is also a factor.

Boarding is often favoured - if not compulsory - at arts and music schools which inevitably bumps the annual fees well up into the five-figure range. But fear not - help is at hand. Bursaries and scholarships are always on offer. And the Government too has put its hand in its pocket to fund places at specialist schools up and down the country.

Help with fees

The music and dance scheme 

This provides means-tested aided places for over 700 boys and girls with outstanding talent in music or ballet.

Parents are helped with fees and boarding costs at eight specialist independent schools in England - four music and four dance. They are:

• Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, Tring Park, Herts
• Elmhurst School for Dance and Performing Arts,  Camberley
• Hammond School in Chester
• Purcell School of Music, Watford
• Royal Ballet School, London
• Wells Cathedral School, near Bath
• The Yehudi Menuhin School 
• Chetham's School of Music, Manchester
• St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh.

All but two (Hammond, which we do not yet have enough reports on and St Mary's Music School) are reviewed in The Good Schools Guide. It is not unusual to find that virtually all pupils are fund-aided. So potentially high costs need not be a deterrent.

Children aged 8 and over (or 11 in the case of dance schools) can be considered for fund aid and, if successful, will receive specialist training alongside a good academic education without breaking the bank.

The Royal Ballet School is at pains to point out:

'No potential pupil or student should be discouraged by lack of financial means from making application to the School.'

 

The path to a school place

Which really leaves just one hurdle - actually getting into the school of your choice! Low school rolls mean over-subscription and the selection process brings camels and eyes of needles very much to mind. There are entrance exams, auditions and interviews. Competition is phenomenal for the few places up for grabs so schools will obviously be looking for children with exceptional potential and ability.

The fact that little Ellie can stand up in front of Great Aunt Bess and belt out 'The Sun'll Be Out Tomorrow' with all the force of a hurricane is not necessarily a reliable indicator of true talent or audition success.

These schools pick the best and expect nothing but the best in return. The School for Dance and Performing Arts counts Jenny Agutter, Helen Baxendale, Sarah Brightman, Fiona Fullerton and Hayley and Juliet Mills amongst its old girls. No shortage of talent in what claims to be probably the oldest vocational dance school in the country. Excellence in dance tops this school's list of goals, followed by high quality broad-based academic education and a happy, healthy, well-motivated community both at work and play. Girls and boys are accepted between the ages of 11 and 13, and again at 16. And its reputation, not surprisingly, attracts teenagers from all over the world. Artistic director Alfreda Thorogood knows what she wants.

'I am looking for young people with talent, instinct, will power and dedication,'

she says.

'They should also have a strong sense of rhythm, co-ordination and energy, good health, good humour and enthusiasm. With these attributes we can offer our students a superb education and a training in dance and the performing arts which is second to none.'

Elmhurst is not alone. Tring Park School for the Perfomring Arts - described by composer Howard Goodall as 'unique' and uncompromising 'with regard to high standards' - has strict conditions of entry. Hopeful pupils, aged 13 or under, must take a piece of art work to an all-day audition. During the morning they will take part in a dance class, recite a poem, sing a song and play an instrument, where appropriate. The afternoon is devoted to academic matters with tests in maths and English. More will be asked of older students wanting admission to the senior school. But the school is quick to point out:

'This is not a 'passing and failing exercise' but an attempt to build up a picture of you and therefore for us to decide whether Tring Park is the school for you! (And for you to decide whether you like us!)'

 

Is it right to define our children's future at such a tender age?

The advice from the National Council for Drama Training (which accredits a number of full-time vocational courses in acting and stage management at higher education level) is - Keep your head. Don't let those stars in your youngster's eyes blinker you to the wider educational picture.

The advice the Council gives to young people who want to earn their living in the theatre is, first of all, to stay at school and complete their education at the highest possible level.

Then, at age 17 years, apply for a place on a full-time course in a drama school, preferably one offering courses accredited by the Council. Graduates of NCDT accredited courses are eligible for full Equity membership.

Does that sensible - though not entirely altruistic - statement actually warn parents and children not to put all their eggs in one basket at a specialist school but stick to the broader mix of any primary or secondary instead? Well, no, not really. It merely stresses the need for a sound basic education and, for the fortunate few who make the grade, specialist schools really can offer the best of both worlds. If the evidence of exam results as well as stage success and entry to the likes of RADA - the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts - is anything to go by, then youth is no barrier to having your cake and eating it. For the right kind of child, this rich mix of artistic and solid academic training can be an absolute winner.

What are the choices?

The next step is to find out which schools would meet your child's particular needs - and where they are.

• The Conference of Drama Schools comprises Britain's 22 leading drama schools.
• The Stage newspaper, which is published every Thursday in paper and electronic format, carries advertisements for schools.
• The NCDT, at 5 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SS, is also an excellent starting point as it has contact details for stage, dance and performing arts schools throughout England.

But let me give you a taste of what else is out there. It has to be said at the outset that those parents living in or near London have the greatest choice but specialist arts schooling has spread to the outer reaches of Hove, Coventry, Liverpool and Chester.

In London The Sylvia Young Theatre School takes students up to GCSEs and has produced many famous faces including former soap star Daniella Westbrook.

Redroofs Theatre School, Maidenhead, Berks - old girl Kate Winslett

The Elliott-Clarke School in Liverpool,

Hammond School, Chester

Pattison College in Coventry

Hurtwood House, Dorking.

Barbara Speake Stage School in East Acton - a school of around 150 boys and girls aged 4 to 16

London's Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts - again mixed, fairly small with 200 pupils aged 10 to 18 - which numbers former EastEnders, now West End star, Martine McCutcheon among its success stories.

Their success in turning out future stars of stage and screen is unquestionable. How many times have we flicked through a theatre programme while waiting for the show to begin and discovered those about to tread the boards come from the stage school stable? But beware - each school's academic success varies enormously as does the selection of sporting extras on offer, and should be closely inspected if such matters are of importance.

A relative newcomer is the BRIT Performing Arts and Technology School in Croydon. Established in the 1990s, it is a state school where all places are free. It also prides itself on being the first of its kind. Independent of any local education authority, it's funded by both the DCFS and the British Record Industry Trust. The school admits students at 14 (after Key Stage 3) and is designed to give them a broad and balanced education, with special emphasis on the performing arts and arts technology, until they're 19.

Choir Schools

There are 44 altogether in the Choir Schools' Association - these are schools attached to cathedrals, churches and college chapels. Just over 1,000 of the 15,000 girls and boys there are choristers, and the mere fact they are choristers has major implications as far as fees are concerned. In fact the CSA web site makes much of this. 'If you know a child who enjoys singing we have news for you,' it trumpets. 'He or she just might qualify for one of the most exciting education bargains currently available to 7-13 year olds.' It goes on:

'There is every chance fees can be found for the child who sings well, who really wants to be a chorister and whose parents genuinely cannot find the money.'

Schools offer tempting discounts. Some chorister places are completely free while others are partly funded by chapel or cathedral foundations or through the CSA's own chorister fund. But it should be remembered that the demands on choristers are high. A cut-price education is a high price to pay if your child buckles under the strain as lengthy rehearsals and interrupted holidays - choristers are needed at Christmas and Easter, for example - take their toll in the battle to keep up with classmates in maths, French and history.

Choir schools are liberally distributed across Britain - from Cardiff to Cambridge, Edinburgh to Ely - and many have excellent reputations for both academic greatness and all-round musical excellence. Take Wells Cathedral School in Somerset which falls under the Government's music and ballet umbrella. It's mixed - almost 50-50 boys to girls, when the junior school is added into the head count - and can offer its 550 pupils the range of studies and activities expected from any good size independent.

But, at the end of the day, if the whole concept of specialist schooling leaves you feeling slightly overwhelmed, it's worth remembering that there's a great deal of excellence to be found in mainstream schools - and The Good Schools Guide records many examples of it. Though large parts of the state system are an artistic desert, there are oases of extraordinary achievement and the Government is at last putting some money behind the creation of more. Under the Excellence in Cities programme, participating schools have the chance to offer gifted children a properly co-ordinated programme during school hours focusing on their strengths backed up with an out-of-hours study support programme, including masterclasses, summer schools and mentoring. Spread across the complete range of juvenile talents, at least two thirds goes on the academic bright sparks leaving a meagre third on pupils identified as gifted in art, music, PE, or any sport or creative art. Well, it's a start, anyway.

Further reading

The Gifted Child

10 Ways To Spot A Gifted Child

Educating The Gifted Child

Scholarships Bursaries Grants And Awards

Stop Apologising For Caring About Scholarships

Grammar & Selective Schools

Common Entrance CE

Understanding The Eleven Plus (11+)

Extended Projects - Stretching The Able

Oxbridge Admissions - Preparing For Entry To Oxford And Cambridge

Do visit our online bookstore

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