Dd (10) wants to be an actress - what should she be doing?

Just wanted to add whilst she is going to do triple threat she did grade 3 tap, GCSE dance and two terms of ballet so not a huge amount of dance - for sixth form they are looking for potential and trainability not the finished article.

Singing is a good idea as even on straight acting courses there is singing.

Discussing with her what type of performance interests her - triple threat gives you the best opportunity of employment.
My daughter was like yours at 10. She then got more involved in musical theatre, had acting and singing lessons and then most recently dance lessons. She mad taken Lamda acting and musical theatre exams and us taking GCSE Dance and Drama.
I am a single mum working full time with on call so doing auditions etc. we're never going to work for us. She successfully auditioned for BYMT last year and will audition for them and NYT this year.
About a year ago it became really clear that A-levels is not the correct route for her and she has a place for September for a triple threat Cambridge OCR that will be the equivalent to A-levels.

If it is West End / musical theatre she is interested in, then the dance she's doing at the theatre school will not be sufficient.

She would need to go to a dance school and do classes in tap, modern/jazz and ballet.

It's where students are given a monologue to prepare for the exam and the teacher teaches it in the same way to everyone, giving the same stage directions, coaching the same vocal inflexions etc. It often gets high marks but isn't encouraging the student to arrive at their own interpretation and it can throw them in auditions when for example they are asked to perform their monologue in an entirely different way.

What do you think the LAMDA "identikit" approach is like?

Possibly apply for things like NYT, NYMT and BTA

For straight acting I probably wouldn't recommend stage school until at least 16/18 unless (as happened at dd's schools) she is very unhappy in mainstream school and needs to move somewhere else.

Youth theatre is good. Also possibly LAMDA exams but make sure she gets a teacher who doesn;t teach the "identikit method". You don't NEED LAMDA but it's useful monologue practice for auditions later on. Vocal training also helps along with basic movement/dance classes.

My dd did Stagecoach for 8 years before going to vocational school as a dance/musical theatre performer. Summer schools can be useful, especially as she gets older ones held at accredited drama schools to give a flavour of what it's like there. Jo Hawes also does some great children's audition workshops in various locations.

The other thing I would recommend is to go to the theatre as much as possible and see (and read) LOTS of plays. This is really important.

Apart from some very specific roles (usually those requiring BAME performers or particular skills (Lion King & Matilda for example) you generally have to live within the M25.