Sorry MorganKitten, I'm with Ant123 on this one. I worked for a Stagecoach for 3 years and had such an awful experience, I left and set up my own school, charging a fraction of the price for a much better quality of service.
The owner was useless. She claimed to have a theatrical background and a passion for musical theatre, but spent 90% of her time sat in an office playing games on her phone and drinking tea. Us teachers were left completely to our own devices. We made all the creative decisions and organised all the scripts and music etc. On a positive note, I feel very lucky to have worked with those people, because they were an excellent team of true professionals and we did what theatre people do, and got on with the show (two of them have been working for me ever since!).
Money was always an issue as well. We usually ended up having to devise our own productions, because she refused to pay performing rights for anything. On one occasion, we even had to take it upon ourselves to borrow costumes from another Stagecoach branch, because she told us there was no money in the budget. Bearing in mind the fees are £100s per term, she expected the parents to be satisfied with them doing a show in their Stagecoach tracksuits, no costumes, no scenery, no lighting? This was a branch with 2 sets of main stages on a Saturday (my day), one on Sunday, one midweek and 2 sets of early stages. I don't know what she was spending all the money on, but it certainly wasn't being invested back into the school! She did go on an extraordinary number of holidays though, often emailing me on the Friday night, to tell me that a caretaker would be opening up the building for us the following day.
The owner was also incredibly passive aggressive, often refusing to speak directly to the parents whenever issues a rose. Her answer to any problem, was to issue a nasty letter, which was invariably given to us teachers to hand out... and take the flack for. I honestly don't know why the parents tolerated it, but they did. All I can assume is that most of them had more money than sense.
Now I should say here, that I don't think Stagecoach is necessarily bad. I know there are some very well run branches, but they are few and far between. In the main, they are a good recreational activity for children, but I wouldn't consider them a breeding ground for talent. Stagecoach exists for one reason, and on reason only... to make money!
The day I left Stagecoach and opened my own school was the best decision I ever made. We now have a fantastic reputation in our town. We have staged numerous shows at the local theatre, including two full musicals working alongside the adults from the amateur dramatic society. Thanks to our connection to the theatre, we have had the opportunity to work with a whole host of visiting theatre companies and given the children access to learn a broad range of theatrical skills, from performing, to costume, lighting, sound, stage management and more. I have personally never come across a Stagecoach that does what we do... because it requires a backbreaking level of work to achieve, and it's never about the money.