Drama school auditions and how "Acting" is taught in schools

[pg]

I'm glad you posted that paulears. I couldn't get my head round it at all!

[MrsAragon]

Hi Paulears,
You've got me thinking now, because the teacher actually asked if my DS was achieving good grades in English, Maths and Science. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now... My DS at Yr 8 is achieving Level 6 in Maths and Level 7 in Science and English, so he's not your average student.
I actually agreed with my DS when he chose Drama, stating that he should do a couple of subjects that he will enjoy! But now, I fear, it's going to be just as hard as the academic subjects.

[pg]

Don't worry Mrs Aragon! It never feels like hard work if you're enjoying it, and if he is with other similarly committed students he'll probably have a ball!

[MrsAragon]

Let's hope so, pg.
Nothing is as it seems these days, and then people wonder why our children are rebelling!
I remember when I was a school (many, many moons ago) children were nurtured. We sung in school choirs, sung and played recorder in our daily assemblies, played kiss chase, sat on the back step drinking milk out of glass bottles... Now it's all about the grades and the fun has been taken out of school life.

[paulears]

Before any kids make option choices at school, or maybe when entering 6th form or considering college - they and their parents should downloads from the exam boards the specification for the courses. One of the really useful things for parents is that because the Government changed the funding framework for EVERY school or college offering real qualifications, every single one now has to have parent/student friendly versions of the spec available for public consideration. The format is exactly the same for every exam board, so for the first time you can look at AQA/Edexcel/OCR exam boards and compare what is in them. They also included an example scheme of work for the year so you can see what sorts of things will be going on. So you can look at identical subjects from different boards and compare them. They all have a Government approved value, in terms of credits - so if you see one that looks harder, check the credit value. It works fine. When you compare schools and colleges, acting/dance schools and universities you need hard information. At open days, they shows you the best, or most interesting because they're trying to make you pick them rather than the competition. At the auditions some then insist on, the focus changes and because they have more applicants, they cherry pick. For the acting/dance heavy places, don't forget they're also thinking about casting their final shows - a room full of identical shapes, sizes, looks, voices etc may NOT be what they want - so the acting schools in particular might be looking for a few 'mature' students, or very young looking ones, or perhaps a higher percentage of males than females. All these things are essentially private and sometimes officially sanctioned, sometimes not. Just think if the dance teacher, thinking about choreographing the show three years in the future, where she needs lots of male/female partner work - she'll be making certain they have enough suitable blokes, even if this means rejecting some better girls in favour of boys who have potential to be better. The bean counters will be pushing for them to take a few extra, just in case of 'shrinkage', the teachers will be worried they'll be overcrowded - and at the less popular colleges, the bottom standard will be lowered if numbers are poor. Amazingly complex and not at all what most applicants think goes on. The old advice of "you'll get in if you're good" might not quite be true sometimes.