Directing future stars

The performing arts play an important role in every student's education; for younger children they offer an opportunity for them to explore their creativity and discover their passions, while upper school students are not only able to develop their confidence on the stage, but gain essential transferable communication and presentation skills.

ACS International School Hillingdon is home to an extremely impressive cohort of students, with talents in so many different areas of drama and theatre – on stage and behind the scenes – and over the years we have continued to evolve our creative offering to inspire the very best in our future stars.

What's on offer?

As an international school, we offer a few alternative pathways to the English national curriculum, and students in our upper school can choose to study the International Baccalaureate (IB), the Advanced Placement (AP) Capstone Diploma, High School (HS) courses, or a combination of these. We have been authorised to offer the IB Diploma Programme (DP) since 1980, and the programme includes a number of courses, such as film and visual arts, and many students take advantage of the thriving drama and performance programme offered as an extracurricular activity to all students, no matter their academic pursuits.

In August 2020, our school was authorised to offer the IB's Career-related Programme (CP), with a focus on drama and theatre industry-related skills development. Like the DP, the CP is another education pathway for learners aged 16-19, however, it places a greater focus on preparing students for their future career pathways by blending academic courses with experience in learning in real industry contexts.

Career-specific skills

The CP is built on an innovative three-part framework that comprises the CP core, which focuses on helping students to gain important transferable skills in applied knowledge,

critical thinking, communication, and cross-cultural engagement; the study of at least two DP courses to enhance students’ academic rigour; and a career-related study, which requires students to gain an industry-specific Level 3 qualification as part of their studies.

At ACS Hillingdon, the career-related component of our CP offering has been purposefully designed to specialise in theatre, drama and film, and we offer a few different qualifications – with some students focusing on one, and some doing them all! Students passionate about the stage are able to gain LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) qualifications in Speaking in Public and Shakespeare Examinations, and they also complete the PCertLAM, a Certificate in Speech and Drama which combines written and practical assessment to allow learners to develop their performance studies.

LAMDA provides a gold standard qualification for students who want to thrive in the performing arts, but, even if students don't want to go anywhere near the stage, these courses are immensely valuable for building a level of confidence that we all need to thrive in today's world. The Speaking in Public course, for example, challenges learners to write their own speeches, including researching the topics, creating visual aids and presenting them from memory, and, throughout the course, they will build their ability to speak confidently and engagingly in front of an audience.

In addition or as an alternative to the LAMDA qualifications, students doing the CP have the option to take an A Level in Theatre, where they can focus on acting or directing, and we have also introduced a Level 3 qualification in photography, which will be highly complementary to the DP film course. As the CP involves the study of at least two DP courses, the IB often encourages schools to choose courses that complement their DP offering; our career-related study options work well alongside DP visual arts, film and psychology, helping students further develop their skills.

Future preparations

A key objective of the CP is to bridge the gap between industry and the classroom; enabling students to develop those skillsets required for the workplace of the future. As such, as an additional opportunity for our CP students, we have established a unique partnership with Creative Media Skills Group, a training partner based at Pinewood Studios. Students can attend one-week courses where they complete skills-focused work with experts. For example, the students currently studying Greek theatre spend a week at Pinewood working on mask-making with an expert in in special FX makeup, whose credits include Jurassic World and most recently Eurovision. Students will also go on to work alongside industry top liners in prop-making and costume design, as well as other key areas.

ACS Hillingdon graduates have gone to on to achieve huge success in the world of film, drama and theatre, and, as we continue to embed the CP into our school, we are looking forward to seeing more stars shine through.

ACS's mission is to prepare students to be ready to answer the world's next questions by offering a unique learning experience that adapts to the frequently changing world. But, to ensure that we are delivering a successful, future-ready education, we must recognise that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach that will help students get ready for their lives after school. The CP combines both academic and practical learning to set students up for whatever pathway suits them best – whether that be in higher education or continuing their learning in the workplace.

Information about the IB can be found at www.ibo.org Information about the IB's Career-related Programme can be found at www.ibo.org/programmes/career-related-programme/