Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

school based in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

in the London Borough of Hounslow.

Overview

ArtsEd provides specialist vocational training at secondary, further and higher education level in

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

and

acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad r ...

for

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

and television. The school also offers part-time and holiday courses in the performing arts. ArtsEd is one of twenty-one specialist performing arts schools approved to offer government-funded Dance and Drama Awards, a scheme established to subsidise the cost of professional dance and drama training for the most talented students at leading institutions. It is a member of the Federation of Drama Schools.

History

School

ArtsEd was founded in 1939. It was formed as a result of a merger between the Cone School of Dancing founded in 1919 by Grace Cone, and the Ripman School founded in 1922 by Olive Ripman. Both Cone and Ripman offered curricula combining a general academic education with training in the arts, in preparation for professional careers connected with the theatre. The two schools were amalgamated in 1939 to form the Cone-Ripman School, the predecessor of today's ArtsEd. The school was first based at Stratford Place in London, but following the outbreak of World War II, relocated to Tring,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, sharing premises with Rothschild Bank at Tring Park. In 1941, the school reopened at Stratford Place, while the second school continued to operate in Tring. In 1947, both schools were renamed the Arts Educational Schools. The London school was later based at Hyde Park Corner (144 Piccadilly), and later still at Golden Lane House in the Barbican. In 1986 the school purchased the former buildings of Chiswick Polytechnic. In the 2000s the two schools became independent of each other, and the Tring school has been renamed Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. Today, Arts Educational Schools London is a co–educational Independent Day School and Sixth Form for pupils aged 11–18, and a professional conservatoire specialising in acting and musical theatre, as well as a range of part-time courses. For many years, the president of the school was prima ballerina assoluta Dame Alicia Markova; Dame Beryl Grey became Director in the 1960s. Dame Alicia was succeeded in 2007 by

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

. Iain Reid was dean of the schools from 1999 until his retirement in December 2006. He was succeeded by John Baraldi, former chief executive of Riverside Studios, and former director of the East 15 Acting School; Baraldi left the school in 2009, and was succeeded by Jane Harrison. In 2017, Chris Hocking assumed the role of principal; he resigned in 2021 and was succeeded by Dr. Julie Spencer as interim principal. In 2013 ArtsEd was awarded a grant by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation to fund a refurbishment project. The money was spent on the main theatre, costume storage, the School of Film and Television and the school's access facilities.

Chiswick School of Art

The

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

architect Maurice Bingham Adams designed the Chiswick School of Art as part of the Bedford Park Garden Suburb's community focus on the site on Bath Road in 1881. It was destroyed by a V-1 flying bomb in 1944. The school was meant to provide the estate with a feeling of community. It taught classes such as "Freehand drawing in all its branches, practical Geometry and perspective, pottery and tile painting, design for decorative purposes – as in Wall-papers, Furniture, Metalwork, Stained Glass". The school was depicted by Thomas Erat Harrison in an 1882 book ''Bedford Park'', celebrating the then-fashionable garden suburb. File:Chiswick School of Art, Bath Road, 1881.jpg, Design for Chiswick School of Art by Maurice Bingham Adams, 1881 File:School of Art, Stores and Tabard Inn by Thomas Erat Harrison 1882.jpg, ''School of Art, Stores and

Tabard Inn Tabard Inn may refer to: * The Tabard, Chiswick, London * The Tabard The Tabard was an inn in Southwark established in 1307 that stood on the east side of Borough High Street, at the road's intersection with the ancient thoroughfare to Canterbu ...

'' by Thomas Erat Harrison, 1882

Academics

Day School and Sixth Form

The Day School and Sixth Form cater to students aged 11 to 18. Students are required to study mainstream subjects, in preparation for the

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

and

A-Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

s, alongside their performing arts pursuits. Besides the A-Levels pathway, Sixth Form students have an option to complete a BTEC Extended Diploma in a performing arts discipline. In 2015 the school was rated "Outstanding" by Ofsted. In 2019 it ranked second in the borough for percentage of pupils passing five or more GCSEs at A*-C.

Tertiary

The school had been accredited by Drama UK (organisation dissolved in 2016). It offers Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education recognised qualifications validated by the City University London or

Trinity College, London Trinity College London (TCL) is an examination board based in London, United Kingdom, which offers graded and diploma qualifications (up to postgraduate level) across a range of disciplines in the performing arts and English language learning and ...

. A non-degree foundation course is offered for students who do not meet the academic requirements for admission into the bachelor's degree programmes.

Former pupils

* Kai Alexander ( ''The Stranger'', ''Catastrophe'') *

Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...

''( The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins)'' * Simone Ashley ('' Sex Education'', '' Bridgerton'') * Samantha Barks ''(Les Misérables on stage and screen)'' * Darcey Bussell ''(Former Principal with the Royal Ballet,

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

judge)'' * Gary Carr ''( Death in Paradise, Downton Abbey, The Deuce, The Good Fight)'' * Adam Cooper ''(Former Principal with the Royal Ballet and Matthew Bourne's New Adventures)'' * Martin Clunes ''( Doc Martin, Men Behaving Badly)'' * Omari Douglas ( ''It's a Sin'') * Laura Haddock ''( Da Vinci's Demons, Luther)'' * Nigel Harman ''(

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

, Shrek The Musical)'' * Nigel Havers ''( Chariots of Fire,

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

)'' * Finn Jones ''(

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

Marvel's Iron Fist ''Marvel's Iron Fist'' is an American television series created by Scott Buck for the streaming service Netflix, based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Fist. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), acknowledging the continuity ...

)'' * Bonnie Langford ''(

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

, Spamalot,

)'' * Margaret Lockwood ''( The Wicked Lady, The Lady Vanishes)'' * Lashana Lynch ''(

Still Star-Crossed ''Still Star-Crossed'' is an American period drama television series developed by Heather Mitchell and based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Melinda Taub. The series is produced by Shonda Rhimes's Shondaland and ABC Studios, and aired on AB ...

, No Time to Die)'' *

Madeleine Mantock Madeleine Mantock (born 26 May 1990) is a British actress. She is known for her main role television work on the series '' Into the Badlands'' and a remake of the series ''The Tomorrow People''. She played in a main role as Macy Vaughn from the ...

( ''Charmed'', ''Into the Badlands'') * Megan McKenna ('' Ex on the Beach'', '' The Only Way Is Essex'') * Tuppence Middleton ''(

Dickensian Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

, War and Peace)'' * Mimi Slinger ('' Emmerdale'') * Hugo Speer ''( The Full Monty, The Musketeers)'' * Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp * Michaela Strachan ''( Springwatch, The Hit Man and Her)'' * Oliver Tompsett ''( Wicked, We Will Rock You)'' * Sally Anne Triplett ''(

Mamma Mia! Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent *Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places * Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlemen ...

, Chicago)'' * Will Young ''( Pop Idol Winner)'' * Yungblud

References

External links

*
Profile
on the Independent Schools Council website {{DEFAULTSORT:Arts Educational The Arts Educational Schools 1939 establishments in England Arts organizations established in 1939 Buildings and structures in Chiswick Chiswick Dance schools in the United Kingdom Drama schools in London Educational institutions established in 1939 Independent co-educational schools in London Independent schools in the London Borough of Hounslow Member schools of the Independent Schools Association (UK)