Thinking of trying Stagecoach Theatre School

[mumsnutty]

I'm not a pushy mother but have a rather energetic 4 yo DD who loves dancing and singing. Googled Stagecoach theatre school and saw some mixed feedback from MN a few years ago.

Does anyone have any recent feedback before I part with my cash?

Can you stay and watch initially?

Thanks for your help

[BeckAndCall]

Note to new readers - this is an old thread and the poster above me is advertising blatantly and is doing so on another thread elsewhere too.

[homebythesea]

We t

[homebythesea]

We took DD out of Stagecoach precisely because there was no focus on improving technique or developing talent- it was just a Sat morning club. For the same money she is now doing focused dancing and acting classes elsewhere and is developing her talents far better. I feel. Now we wasted the years at Stagecoach

[bowerbird]

Homeby I completely agree. Stagecoach promotes itself as a builder of confidence in children, which I think is a bit bogus. I think the best way to instil confidence in children is to develop an actual performance skill.

[difficultpickle]

Depends what you want though, doesn't it? I posted up thread under another name. Ds loved it and really enjoyed peforming on stage. He is now a chorister and has so much confidence that in his second term he was asking to do solos. The development of that confidence started from Stagecoach.

[saintlyjimjams]

Depends on what you want really. DS2 started Stagecoach at 4 solely because he needed time away from his severely disabled brother (I felt). He loves it (been going 7 years now). We sent him with no thoughts of it being anything other than a fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon -in fact I quizzed the owner on how laid back it was before sending him - but a year or so ago he wanted to start auditioning for professional shows (west end tours) so we let him, and he's now managed to land the part in 2 out of 3 auditions (had a 7 hour audition and through to final round of the one he didn't get - 7 hours of mainly dance, and believe me he is no dancer ).

He does LAMDA exams for a more structured, recognised approach. He's recently managed to land himself a part in a pretty big production which involves some solo singing so I have arranged for him to have some private singing lessons (actually with his Stagecoach singing teacher who is very good). I will continue with those, and will look into him starting to take singing exams etc.

I send him to Stagecoach because he enjoys it and because it is inclusive- not for serious training. Although his Stagecoach also has a performance group that you have to audition for - he's in that, and that is treated more seriously and they get a lot of extra free tuition and the chance for extra performances.

He's also done some workshops and classes at the local regional theatre (which are cheaper although shorter). He enjoyed the workshops but wasn't as keen on the classes (although probably because there were some badly behaved kids there who kept messing around - I think he might enjoy the classes more if he tries them again when older).

So imo it's fine for fun stuff, and it's also fine if your child surprises you and ends up really going for it in a big way but in that case you might want to top up with some individual tuition (you would do anyway tbh unless they're attending a theatre school).

[saintlyjimjams]

Oh whoops soorry zombie thread

[Picturesinthefirelight]

It's fan to hear how your ds us doing. I remember when you were thinking if enrol long him way back. Dh had just stated running his first school.

[saintlyjimjams]

Seriously? That's very funny. I remember really angsting about it and whether it would be too pushy and stagey for him. Little did I know how ds2 would turn out (off early tomorrow morning to get him some head shots done, then seeing doc later in the week to get medical certificate for his latest licence FFS - I have no idea where he gets it from! It's just lucky we don't live within the M25 or he'd be wanting to audition for everything!).

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Is he involved in Cats?

What parts has he had. We're too far up North for anything serious but dd has had a few bits and one of my students got down to the last few for Charlie. Got Tosca coming up soon.

[PureQuintessence]

My boys tried it. They went twice. I was given the hard sell and had to buy both tap shoes (£25 each) and order T shirts (£12 each) straight away, and buy black track suit bottoms. The whole idea of "uniform" is really pushing parents to spend more and make activities in-affordable.

It was extremely expensive. The groups were really big. My youngest son was six, and ended up in the 4-7 group. Really too big difference between 4 year olds and 7 year old children for this to be productive at all. He said break time was really long, and the children were unruly and out of control, and throwing biscuits around.

My 10 year old was much happier with the age range in his group, but did not really enjoy it.

I told the teacher the boys were not happy and would not continue, and she told me because only the first two sessions of the new term were the trial sessions they could not have a free trial and I had to pay up. I told her "but we had prearranged that my children could not attend the two first lessons of the term because they were away" She said tough luck. I did not have to pay the £300 per child for the entire term, only the deposit, which was £70 for each child.

[saintlyjimjams]

Not Cats no, but don't want to say on a public forum. So far he's gone for the touring west end shows and has had luck in the ones where there's only a few kids (so they get thoroughly spoiled but don't have much in the way of rehearsals).

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Pure quintessence - are you surecthatvwas stagecoach as lots of things don't add up.

The maximum class size is 15
Early Stages ;age 4-7 don't have break time
Main school only have 10 min break after two hours
The deposit for 2 Children for 2 weeks trial is £75 total. For Early Stages is £50 total.

The trial can happen any time during the first 4 weeks but not after that.

A 6 year old with a sibling in main school would have the option if being in Stage 1 which is around 6-8 age range as long as they were able to cope with 3 hours not 90 mins.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Snd Stagevoavh don't do tap. jazz shoes cost £18 t shirts £10

[PureQuintessence]

Sorry, my mistake, jazz shoes - you can tell I only went twice!

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Also the prices don't add up as the 2nd sibling gets 50% discount and 4-7 year olds are also half the price as hey do hdlf the amount of time.

[PureQuintessence]

It was most definitely Stagecoach.

Maybe they are not all run in the same way? My kids were asked to bring a snack for snack time. There were three sections, singing, acting and dancing. One break for snacks.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

They all have the same rules and prices set bybhead Ofice. Break time is a strict 10 mins so you get 3 55 minute classes.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

You can get jazz trainers which are more expensive (but not really suitable for under 9's

Jazz shoes as I ssud before are £18 (used to be £16 but went up last year)

[PureQuintessence]

So, what are you saying?

That I am for some strange reason lying about snack times?