Brit or ArtsEd

[chopc]

If you disregard the fee paying status of ArtsEd, which school is better for Musical Theater? in terms of experience and opportunities?

I'd say they're probably equal.

With MT, it's all about the degree college and securing the right agent after that.

Given the enhanced fees for places like Arts Ed, Mountview etc for the degree, I would probably go for BRIT and save the money towards the top up fees at degree level and/or spend them on extra 1-2-1 singing lessons.

Arts Ed probably better for academics. What age is your dc?

The OP had commented on another post and that was for Y11 entry, so I am assuming they are looking at 6th form.

But agree - if you are looking at a Y10 place, then Arts Ed has the better academics... but I think there are better options than either school at Y10.

Sorry, this was for sixth form. Thanks. Your opinions are probably as I concluded myself

I have a DC at artsed day school. I'm not impressed honestly. It's completely put them off drama over the last couple of years. Academics are mixed and the running of the school has been in constant flux. I think they're recruiting another new head now.
I don't know if sixth form is different, but I'd think twice about spending money on it.

That's sad but doesn't totally surprise me.

We looked at over 20 secondaries for DD back in Y5/Y6 - mix of state, private, vocational and mainstream. Arts Ed was hands down the most chaotic, disorganised and strange open day we attended.

Even more odd was the performance they put on for prospective students was entirely 6th formers and degree students... made me wonder what they were hiding since we wanted to see what the 11-16 cohort was doing.

I was also a bit hmmm, about the total mix-up of academics and vocational with maths one lesson, dance the next etc.

Also seemed that you'd need to spend a heck of a lot on top for triple threat training. Drama strand only had one dance class a week, Dance strand had only one drama class. Music provision was a bit meh, and if you wanted singing training then you had to sort your own 1:1 out of school. Made me wonder what you were actually paying for beyond being with other children with a similar interest (which has more downsides than upsides imo at that age unless you have a dancing boy and live in the back end of nowhere).

We were the COVID cohort so we're doing it pretty blind. Looking back I think choosing that school is probably my biggest parenting mistake, though at least they do let students do a lot of arts subjects which DC does like & do quite well in.
I agree re the cohort, great if you're an out of place dancing boy or if you're trans but for a standard drama loving girl it's just a small, hyper competitive cohort which they can't get away from.

We looked at Arts Ed for 6th form. My daughter had been at Hammond since Year 7 on a 50% bursary & we would have needed a similar level of funding for 6th form.

We concluded that for Musical Theatre the number of dance classes she could access was no better than our local college. They would have been a higher standard but no where near enough compared to what she was getting at Hammond.

They also only had 3 scholarships per year whereas dd was offered a Dada at Hammond where we would only pay £900 per term. The academics were undoubtedly better than Hammond though.