Options problems with year 8s

[Howdydoodyfolks]

Would appreciate some advice! My DD has to chose her options soon. She wants to get into acting so Drama is really important to her.

Because of the way the school has been handled, they are £500,000 in debt having spent millions on a sports hall ......ANYWAY! Their answer is to cut back on the Arts - music has no input, instruments are half broken, not enough headphones, only 1 poor teacher for the whole department. Art itself is a joke - fab teacher but has very few facilities (not even enough white paint when my older DS was doing his A level).
But the main problem is this - now they have pretty much decided to cut Drama out altogether. Am fuming for the kids like my DD who love it. They have already missed out being taught it all through Year 8 as it was cut through the teacher leaving.
What can I do? I will be making an appointment to see the person in charge but after years of dealing with this school and being fobbed off (not always - some teachers are beyond brilliant and have sorted things out for me and other parents) but the head couldnt care less - he once emailed me about a worry I had "cant you ever say anything positive" and ignored totally my concern.
Do the governors get involved in things like this? Where do us parents stand legally with getting a school to offer a previously offered subject which for financial reason it says it cant?
Thanks for getting this far! Any help much appreciated x

That is pretty rubbish but with funding pressures difficult decisions will have had to have been taken. However, drama will always have been a fairly small part of the curriculum. We never had a drama teacher one of the English teachers did it IIRC.
But surely there will be plenty of extra curricular drama activities available? Perhaps an external after school club could be persuaded to come to the school if there is demand.
I really don't think cutting a drama teacher is going to massively cut your daughter's ability to get involved in performing arts. Though I agree it is annoying and unfortunate.

Thank you for your response Frazzled2207 you make some good points there

I would expect that they have made this decision as the 'least bad' option. They have to balance the books, and they can't drop core academic subjects from their offering.

You have 2 choices

• Suck it up. Do extra curricular drama instead
• Move schools

Yep TeenTimesTwo that just about sums up my choices. Unfair on the children though who start a school being promised all these subjects, then 2 years later their choices are taken away.
"that's life" or whatever, still a shame for their school years to have the fun subjects taken away. If she was academic like DS it wouldnt be a problem. She isnt, and nor are a lot of kids who rely on alternative subjects to enjoy school.

Well exactly the same happened to me in that I was keen to do Spanish and when I was in Year 7 the Spanish teacher left and wasn't replaced.
These things do happen unfortunately. I don't think you have a legal standpoint unless it was a "core" subject.

It sounds like things have been badly handled but I am not sure there is much that can be done about it now. If they are in deficit on their budget they will need to be taking extreme action to fix that. The governors have a responsibility to get the finances back on track so they will have that as a big item on their agenda.

Yes its the arts that constantly get cut & streamlined, its art, drama, music etc because they are not core academic subjects. If you go to the head then I don't think anything will change unfortunately. I didn't do drama at school because it wasn't offered but I did do theatre studies at A Level & half my degree in joint honours is in drama.

If you're looking at specific stage schools after GCSE education then look at their entrance criteria, for example Italia Conti want English & Maths at GCSE level for their Higher Education course in acting, a GCSE in drama is not required. If your DD has her sights set on any specific school or course then look at their entry requirements & work backwards to what she will need.

Your answer lies outside of school at the moment though, if your DD wants to get into acting or performing arts then a GCSE in Drama will not help with that at all except to possibly lead to a vocational performing arts college course, which is likely to not ask for too many GCSEs as it is as the entry will include an audition component. Try to look at amateur dramatics societies outside school, if you're in a city then there might be youth specific ones or it could be open to all ages. Try dance, singing, choir, public speaking or any other related fields too. Maybe look into holiday stage school courses. If you have a local theatre do they audition teens for the Christmas panto etc.

I share your frustration as there will be many many children who want to experience the Arts & also children who shine in these subjects rather than at traditional academics, but sadly schools can no longer offer them.

Thank you all for your responses and advice - all really helpful x