Stagecoach clubs

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Hi ladies. Do any of your children attend a stagecoach club? We've had a leaflet from school offering 2, 90 min sessions of singing, dancing and acting for £25.
Are the classes normally a mixture? Or do you just pick one? How much does it cost normally? Is there anything you can tell me about the sessions? Thank you :)

Hi, my dd goes to one that is 3 hours long, one hour each of singing, dancing, acting. Not sure if that's standard for all classes/ages though. It's £30, which works out expensive for a term, but she absolutely loves it, and it's for wonders for her confidence. They usually work towards a show every term, either just for parents or a public performance. I'm not personally keen on the focus on musical theatre over other skills, and there's quite a lot of idolisation of being a tv "star" but we just balance that at home and the skills she is learning have definitely helped her confidence and public speaking at school, so we're keeping with it for more now. Might be worth a trial to see if your dd enjoys it but do be aware of the long term cost and know if you can afford that before she goes in case she loves it.

Looking st the Stagecoach website the rate is for classes for 4-6 year olds. I would wait and join the main school in a couple of years. At £30 for 3 hours it’s still expensive but much better value than the early stages.
It’s worth checking if the local Stagecoach does holiday courses, usually a few days in one week of the school holidays. These are better value and a great way to try out what Stagecoach offers.

Link to Stagecoach website here
www.stagecoach.co.uk/weekly-classes/early-stages-(4-6-yrs)

Thank you ladies :)

We looked in to it but far too expensive on top of other extra curricular activities so we're going to try a local club instead.

My DD goes to Stagecoach and loves it but it is expensive! In Early Stages (age 4-6) they do an hour and a half and it's a mixture of drama, singing and dancing. Then in the main school from 7 onwards they do an hour of each each week. Our school do a big performance with costumes once a year but I don't think they all do.

They also do LAMDA acting and musical theatre exams at ours if you want to (it's an optional extra and costs more but you can dip in and out of that bit which is quite handy).

DD loves it and has learnt lots of useful skills (memory, confidence, teamwork and co-operation, perseverance etc), but it is a big commitment so do look into costs etc before you do the trial.

You could dip your toe in by doing one of their week long summer workshops where they do a show in a week if it is on offer at your local site. My DDs really enjoy them as it is full on and no time to be bored.

They have never done the termly stagecoach as it would be a bit too much for them (and us).

Dd loves stagecoach and has been going for years . She's learnt loads and has always been really into musical theatre so the emphasis on that is a bonus for her although they do lots of other stuff too . They all operate slightly differently though depending on who's running it so it's worth going along for a trail to see

That's fab ladies thank you. I'll arrange for him to try the trial and see how we get on :)

My daughter went to Stagecoach for 8 years, my son for 4 or 5.
It was incredibly expensive! To be fair, my daughter got confidence from it and wants to take the drama side further, but we found the emphasis on musical theatre too much - it was all a bit jazz hands and corny accents. Also, they never performed full shows that anyone had heard of - the shows were either numbers from musicals or slightly bizarre school play-type shows.
These days, there are so many stage school franchises, like the Pauline Quirk schools, Mark Jerman ( depending where you live, obviously) it's worth doing some research.

Also have a look for independents offering similar things. DD goes to a class that is 90mins that includes singing, acting and dancing for what works out to be £6 a session/£4 per hour (you pay in 6 week half-term blocks of £36). She has been doing it about 5 years and still gets a huge amount from it.

Not all Stagecoach franchises are equal. Some of them are, quite frankly, just childcare. My daughter started at one and I was very unimpressed- my daughter who adores performing started to not want to go. You have to give a huge notice period and the fees are very expensive. We were the start of a wave of people leaving and then the principal changed and it’s turned itself round.

If it’s confidence building you are interested in then have a look at Perform. The Pauline Quirke Academy is also really good, as are local offerings.