Stagecoach theatre school

[BellaLasagne]

My 7 yr old DD is getting rather good at ballet (got a distinction in her primary exam), is learning the piano and just loves musicals and Strictly Come Dancing etc.

I'm thinking of trying her in something like Stagecoach - does anyone have any experience of them? Good points, niggles (cost being one)??

Thank-you

[Pinkprincessmummy22]

My kids went to stagecoach briefly, I didn't feel it was for them. I've heard good feedback from a couple of people hence why I tried it briefly for my kids! I think it's personal preference! You can do a 2 week trial, depending on age of child it will either be £25 for 2 weeks or £50 for 2 weeks trial. My kids are currently at PQA (Pauline quirke academy) performing arts are really enjoying it!! You get a free PQA T-shirt when you join and no uniform to buy! Although it is there if you want to buy more uniform! Xx

[gaslamp]

MorganKitten - why are you responding to such an old thread?

[MorganKitten]

josiepoise,

Who was the manager of your school? I’ve worked at Stagecoach head office for many years, and yes we do CRB/DBS checks!

Not just anyone can run a school, people are interviewed and have been turned away if they do not fit with our ethos or are right to work with children.

Ant123,

Did you contact head office about the problems you had? We are there to support teachers as well as managers.

Wiki lists our Notable alumni, while we do encourage building self confidence there is and agency that does find work for the children if thats what they want to do.

[Heels99]

There are no pushy mums at our stage coach. Many of the children go because they are shy and need a confidence boost or their social skills would benefit from doing more team work, some of the children have additional needs. No pushy types just kids having a nice time.

[TrisisFour]

Not quite sure why this would be in g&t as I believe there is a section on mn for extracurricular activities. There is a stagecoach near us and 2 girls in dd's class go there. Both are total drama queens and actually not very pleasant. My dniece went for a while however and enjoyed it. Dd has recently starting singing lessons in an arts academy which is lovely and not full of pushy mothers, unlike stagecoach. Definitely not for g&t children at stagecoach though!!

[Ant123]

I would be very careful about using Stagecoach. I worked for a lovely school as a singing teacher for over 12 years. It came under new management. Unfortunately I was not paid at all for an entire terms work as the owner went bankrupt. Each franchise owner pays to use the Stagecoach name. Stagecoach are happy to take the money with very little quality control or help for owners and staff

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Sauvignon I'm sorry about your experience. At my stagecoach we have several children with learning difficulties or disabilities including one whose mum was having such a hard time I told her to go and have a coffee and unless he did something absolutely terrible we would deal with it whilst she had 90 mins to herself.

He told me last week after he'd had a good week and won our star if the week sticker he'd never been awarded that before, ever.


We're not experts in sen but we will try our best.

However this is a very old thread bumped by a poster who seems to have joined mumsnet purely to advertise one particular school.

[givemeaclue]

Think the op prob has resolved this in the 7 years since she posted vii thread

[SauvignonBlanche]

Stagecoach is not "for everyone". I attempted to enrol DS and mentioned on the form that he had AS, there were no places.

Something smelt fishy do I applied again using his middle name, didn't mention the AS, there was a place.

Needless to say, I didn't take them up on it.

[autylm01]

hi, my sisters went, but it made her less confident, some teachers slacked and didnt make the dancers put alot of effort in, also did singing but she got laughed at and the teachers did noting so this was very embarrassing for her. she tried drama but they only semmed to do the same things which dosnt improve them. so overall she didnt enjoy this. hope this will help you. :)

[youcantlabelme]

Hi my experience is of Stagecoach (Sutton) and also that it really depends on the person running each individual school.

Ds (now nearly 11) has been going for almost seven years now. For the first year it was very wishy washy with vague end of term 'demos' of what had been 'learnt' over the past few months.The principal was never to be seen and the teachers and kids didn't have much energy or passion about the three disciplines.

Then a new principal came in and transformed the school.Now twice a year there are shows, and demos usually at easter. There are holiday workshops which are so popular there are waiting lists to go on them. All the teachers are so full of enthusiasm and energy which in turn rubs off on the kids.

They are involved with events locally- singing in the shopping centre and local theatre as well as doing galas and events in Central London. Last year, DS got the chance to sing as part of a group in front of Bob Geldof at the Dorchester Hotel.

DS is also registered with the Stagecoach agency-he has had some work(most recntly playing one of the kidnapped boys on Hunter BBC1 18th and 19th Jan), but not a lot and it's not compulsory.

All in all we have had a good experience, but it's not for every child and it can be expensive compared with some other schools out there.

Good Luck with whatever you decide for your DD.

[lijaco]

It is full of over powering pushy parents with children that may not have ability but have the money so what does it matter. Some will never achieve there dreams but hey they have the money.

[twinsetandpearls]

No perform near me.

[twinsetandpearls]

My dd would love to go to stagecoach but it is very expensive, we already pay for horseriding and music lessons. Hopefully as we sort our finances we can send her to a dance school.

[MollieO]

this is the website for Perform - first on the list if you Google.

You may get a broader response posting this in the
'Extracurricular Activities' section.

My ds did a summer course with Perform. I thought they were very organised and professional. Perform offer a trial lesson. Our local theatre school doesn't and you have to spend a large amount on the uniform before you even attend. Means ds will only do classes if he begs as then I know he will stick at it .

No idea about Dalcroze but here is a link.

[Koumak]

Thanks but I am North London. Both stagecoach and perform have few venues not far from us so I will give a try - for perform you can actually try out for free and book it online no problem

[stroppyknickers]

If you are in Kent Spotlites is really good.

[Koumak]

Thank you all this have been really helpful.From what I understand the difference between the Perform and Stagecoach is the first one runs during the week after school and the second one on Saturdays. In regards to the quality - I am firm believer in try before you buy so always arrange trial lesson everywhere I can. As I believe in first impression, I always look at the resources the class/school have, the teachers and "the other mothers". Does that make sense? So I might give both a try. Still can?t find UK link to Dalcroze.

[Koumak]

I am just looking at these various websites mentioned here and unfortunately it seems that Helen o Grady classes are from 5 onwards so that one is out. Does anybody have a webpage for the Dalcroze?

[islandofsodor]

Is it a co-incidence that there are at least two other threads onhere from different users who have dragged up old threads in order to reccomend Perform.

One was on a thread asking about Dalcroze based kindergarten music at a major music school. I posted on that to give advice as I am a fan of Dalcroze, nothing at all to do with Perform or Stagecoach for that matter.

[islandofsodor]

I can only echo everything that 2winmum has said. I hope that I am known enough on mumsnet for people to realise that I have no axe to grind and whilst I have replied to questions about Stagecoach I do not use Mumsnet as a vehicle to promote it at all.

Jo has searched out this post and posted a carbon copy post on other forums in the last 2 days.

Jo, you say you searched to see if we are still operating. Last year we celebrated our 20th anniversary, we must be doing something right.

It is true that we do not force our teachers to teach a strict curriculum with set lesson plans. I am glad of this as it allows flexibiliity. Even teachers in school teaching to the National Curriculum are free to use their own skills to create their own lesson plans. Each subject does have a set of guidelines with points that a group is expected to cover over the course of a year.

I would not be involved with an organisation or send my own daughter to one that I did not believe to offer value.