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Weekend Stage SchoolsDateline: 13th July, 2006A recent report in The Stage highlighted concerns about the lack of regulation of private stage schools for the under-16s, most of which operate on weekends and, to some extent, during school holidays. Concern was expressed about lack of properly qualified and CRB checked staff, about lack of third-party insurance, and about health and safety. Dancers also expressed concerns about non-sprung floors and, indeed, floors which are totally inapproriate for dance. The fact is that anyone can set up a stage school. All you have to do is find a venue and advertise for children to join. For many years private dance schools have been part of a system of training for dance teaching which ensures - usually - that those who teach in them have been accredited as dance teachers by progressing through the various grades and eventually taking dance teacher exams. Thus there is a built-in checking mechanism so that parents can find out if the people who teach their children are properly trained and qualified. For the performing arts or stage schools, which typically offer an hour each of dance, drama and singing on a Saturday or Sunday, there is no recognised qualification, no accreditation and no regulation. I am not a fan of regulating every aspect of life - indeed, too much regulation always leads to huge bureaucracy and can, in fact, cause more damage than the abuses it is set up to control - witness the whole Child Support Agency débacle - but I have to say that it seems monstrous to me that anyone, even those without the minimum of experience, can set up a school and begin to charge parents of children as young as eight (or, in some cases, six) to teach them to act, dance and sing. School teachers, who have been trained to degree level, are hedged about with so many rules and regulations laid down by the Department of Education, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and other bodies, and so much is made of quality of Teaching and Learning (quite rightly - and note the capitalisation) and of assessment and reporting that many are now protesting that they cannot find the time to actually teach! And teachers are trained not only in their specialist subjects but also to teach, and they are subject to a programme of continuing professional development. Not only that, of course, but teachers are subject to scrutiny from the senior management of their school, the local authority, HM Inspectors of Schools and Oftsted - and they are supervised by a Board of Governors which includes parents, representatives of the local authority, co-opted members from industry and commerce, and interested members of the public. And embracing all this, of course, is a major government department. Whilst many would argue that, taken all together, this is over-kill - and I have to say, as one who taught for about thirty years, that many of those who are in a supervisory role over schools have as much understanding of what life is like at the "chalk-face" as I have quantum mechanics (i.e. none) - but to allow a fairly large and growing sector to be totally unregulated and even unaccredited is folly. Here is one place where some government intervention is not only necessary but is also to be welcomed! There are many well-run, very successful weekend stage schools, but equally there are those where the exerience and skills of the "teachers" are, at best, questionable. Something should be done!
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