Birmingham Ormiston

[Sammy3]

Has anyone got any experience of this school at secondary or A level? Dd1 is very keen on art & already plans to study it at uni. Birmingham Ormiston has entries at year 10 & A level. Dd1 is in year 8 so I'm just trying to find out in advance if it's worth her getting excited about the idea of a specialist art school.

Yes! My son goes there. Its open week this week I believe!

I only know of people on the performing arts courses at BOA.

I'd be interested to know more about it as to how it compares to other vocational performing arts schools & other academic schools in its provision.

Ooooo, nostress, what do you & your son think of it? What specialty is he studying? I was thinking it might be too soon to go to the open days since she's a year early.

I agree, pictures. I'd like to know how it compares but it's difficult to tell, I suppose, as there are no league tables or inspections on the specialty areas. Any ideas on how to check an arts school's progress or reputation?

The school dd goes to is inspected in its 6th form by Trinity as it offers DaDa funding. I'm not sure about lower school other than an ISI inspection.

Are there enough technique classes for example in dance for a student not to need to go to a private dance school for example?

He does acting. Was the first intake of Y10s. Now in Y12.

Academically they do all the core gcses (2xenglish/maths/science), then have two options outside of their specialism (gcses). Their specialism is covered by a Btech which is worth 3 gcses. So they end up with 7 gcses + btech in Y11. I'm sure I saw on the website news section that they got 75% a-c in the gcses but now thats disappeared/replaced with more recent news.

I can't give you any help on the provision for art I'm afraid but I would say kids have dropped out because of the workload in art (in Y10). If you are coming from a state school it can be a shock to the system as the school day finishes at 4.15pm and they are almost expected to put in additional hours after school. The btechs are tough and a huge amount of evidence/coursework needs to be produced.

Kids come from MILES away to attend (worcester, leamington, gloucestershire, Kidderminster) and nearer by like walsall, solihull.

I'm on my phone so please excuse the typos!

A couple from dds school have left to go there. One into year 10 & one into 6th form. The advantage I guess is that its free.

Interesting about the gcses though, that's less than I thought. Dd will do 9 gcses alongside her vocational training. But her school day ends at 6pm & she has to do Saturday mornings too (though admittedly the drama students don't do that much - 2 5pm finishes & 4pm on the other days.

How many A levels can they do?Dds school they can only do 2 A levels alongside a Level 6 diploma.

They can do two extra alongside the Btech but its discouraged as the Btech is worth 3 A levels and that would equal 5 a levels which is a lot! DS is just doing one. His friend is doing two but is also very strong academically.

Dd wants to do A levels to keep her options open for physiotherapy.

So far the only place where she can do 3 seems to be Tring Park.

Thanks again, nostress. That's really useful info. I think dd would love to have lots of art coursework so she would probably stick to it but I worry about her having to travel so far especially if she has to stay late regularly since she'll probably have to take the train. She is considering it for year 10 but I'm thinking maybe 6th form would be better. I wonder how difficult it would be for kids joining the school for art in 6th form if the ones joining in year 10 find it so difficult. I also didn't know about BTECs at that level so was interested to know that it's not very practical to do a levels as well but I'm only a little worried that it would limit her options at uni. She's had her heart set on doing art or graphic art at uni for a while so I imagine that experiencing it at GCSE level will help to cement that or change her mind. She's currently working on her bronze arts award & also goes to a Saturday art club for teens which has a great instructor who teaches them various skills. She draws constantly outside of all that so I'm sure she'd dedicate herself to the GCSE level art coursework at BOA but I bet she'd do it at the expense of her other subjects.

Yes I think leaving it to Post 16 is a good idea if you are concerned about the travel. I dont know how much the artists are expected to be around after school as its a bit different to the performers having to rehearse together. Where do you live?

The intake is 150 into Y10 and an additional 150 into year 12. So its 300 in Y12. You are almost guaranteed a y12 place from y11 as long as you are working hard on your specialism.

Still on phone!

It's good to see that they do take that many more in year 12. Part of dd's worry is that the competition for places at year 12 would be even greater since most schools have less places in year 12 than year 11 so only a small number of external students get a place in year 12. I think she'll go to the open evening next year just to see if she would like to move in year 10 but with her main goal on seeing what the school is like for year 12. Thanks again.

I've never heard of it - where in Birmingham is it ?

It's over by Millenium Point.

Oh, right - thanks. Odd I've never even heard of it

It's very specialist so unless you have a child very into art, drama, music or dance you might not

It's also only been open a few years. It's known as the Birmingham Brit Schoolbut its official name is BOA (Birmingham Ormiston Academy)

It takes children aged 14 plus.

Aha! I've heard of the Brit School!
Thanks Pictures

Its 'partnered' with the brit school. I dont really know what that means but jessie j has visited and she went to the brit school. BOA took over the running of the old rep recently so they now have their own theatre!