Is there such a thing as a secondary drama school?

[LucasNorthCanSpookMeAnytime]

Can you go to drama school at secondary age or are they only post-GCSEs?

There are vocational schools available before then although may not be exclusively drama - some more academic with vocational lessons timetabled (ie. Arts Ed, Tring ), some focussing more on performing arts (Sylvia Young, Italia Conti) with agencies attached.

school link

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Lucas which region are you in? I attended a theatre college when I left school at 16, though it was dance, drama & singing (I was there for the dance but had to also take part in the other two, despised drama!) x

www.redroofs.co.uk/

Thanks everyone. We're in the South East. I had no idea they'd be so expensive!

We've looked at this and the thing that has put me off is the apparent lack of academic back up at the specialist schools eg Sylvia Young, Tring Park. GCSE results not great, do have gone down the extra curricular route with the option to do something more specialised post GCSE

The Brit School (Croydon) does have a Theatre pathway (they also have Musical Theatre). As pointed out above though they are a 14-19 school. They get good academic results as well, and point out on their website that they are not a stage school.

I know this is an old thread but does anyone have any experience with London stage schools? My friend's DD is a really talented singer and would love to go to drama school. My friend's heard mixed reviews about them. Has anyone any advice?

Looking at ones such as Sylvia young I think.

Thanks.

Tea there are several girls from DD's school who have gone on and had successful music/theatre careers. They did GCSE's and A-levels at a regular school (all getting good grades) and then attended an Italia Conti associate school ( theatre school on a Saturday). Of the most recent ones, two went on to do the short course at main Italia Conti school both have lead roles one in the West end and one currently in panto in Newcastle. Another girl is short listed for BBC new music award and won a Grammy.
Full time theatre school is not always the way to go,

In case you end up going down the extra curricular route Italia Conti have a full day Saturday school in Chislehurst, SE London. Some children spend best part of the day there doing a variety of different classes.

I agree that a drama or stage school might not be the right option. A normal school which is highly supportive of the arts and allows time off for auditions etc is, in my eyes, a better solution. My daughter attends weekend stage school and has an agent through this alone. She has got some fab professional work through this but we feel the balance is right between the drama but and school. Not every child performer goes on to have an adult career, and then what do they do without qualifications? If my daughter is still into it when she's older then we would be fully supportive at 18+ with a sound set of grades.

DS wants to be an actor/performer. We've gone down the route of regular education & topping up with pro work (the big theatre shows/tours usually have more or less open auditions for children although you may need to send a cv on first).

He also has started to attend an italia conti associate school & the standard is definitely higher than many of the competitor drama schools. Now he's getting to his mid secondary years (& too old to audituon for pro kid roles) there are quite a few opportunities locally for high quality training. He does about 15 hours a week on top of school work.

Also as a child gets to secondary age - especially from around 14 up - there are high quality opportunities such as paid for workshops at places like RADA & also audition opportunities for organisations like NYT.

If you want to focus on dance I personally think there is a strong argument for vocational training during secondary years & for a full time dance school. Possibly for music as well. For drama/singing not so much. I personally think that for drama a wide range of life experience is probably helpful.

My son's current back up plan is primary school teacher- which will be a lot easier to access at the time if he has a decent bunch of GCSE's & A levels behind him.

Tiring Park has reasonable academic results.

tringpark.com/curriculum/public-exam-results

Cost is astronomical though