| TWENTY FIRST ANNIVERSARY YEAR |
|
| 21st ANNIVERSARY YEAR - Stagecoach, nationally, has been in existence for 21 years now. Stagecoach in Yarm and Darlington have been in existence for twelve years. We educate in excess of 550 children every weekend. Jamie Bell of “Billy Elliott” fame was an original Stagecoach Yarm student and was sent to the Billy Elliott auditions by us. Zoe Birkett of Pop Idol fame was a long-standing student of ours in Darlington. We had children performing in the West End. We are proud of the achievements of students like these, but are equally proud of the smaller triumphs that we see in all our students week by week, as they start to build in confidence, take risks and find out who they are and what they can be |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| RECENT SUCCESSES |
|
 |
|
Some of our present students have been lucky enough to have been chosen to take part in the following projects during the recent past - 25 students sang in “Abbamania”, 9 girls appeared in “Annie”. 25 of our youngest students (aged 4-7) appeared at the NEC in Birmingham in the “Dance, Drama and Music Extravaganza”. 80 students appeared three times in “Joseph”, and one boy starred in “Mary Poppins” in the West End. A boy appeared in a documentary, as the young Horatio Nelson. Other students have appeared in TV adverts and done voice-over work on cartoons. 9 students have been filmed for CBBC. One boy is currently filming a feature film. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| AWARDS |
|
| Stagecoach Yarm and Darlington have won five different prestigious awards at local, regional and then national level for “excellence”, achievement in the realms of women’s business, retention rates of students in our schools, for Social Entrepreneurship and finally as the runner-up in the national “Franchisee of the Year” awards. Our students too are winning awards. Jamie Bell won the BAFTA for “Best Actor” after his role in “Billy Elliott” and our students regularly receive local Arts awards for young people, such as Vibe awards in Darlington, SMART awards in Stockton and “Young Achiever” awards from The Tees Valley Learning and Skills Council. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| EARLY STAGES & WORKSHOPS |
|
 |
|
We have ten classes for Early stages students spread across seven main schools. This provides places for 150 four to seven year olds. Before becoming a principal of Stagecoach, I was a senior teacher in a large primary school and ended my days there as an infant classroom teacher. This gives me a great love of, and understanding for, this age group. At the other end of the spectrum, we now have two Further Stages classes in Darlington and Yarm . This is for our students aged fifteen and older to extend and challenge them. They were created because we have so many older students that want to remain with us. They are either motivated to remain just for fun, or as a means to achieve further training in the Performing Arts, with a view to pursuing it as a career. Every summer, in August, we run week-long workshops for 4-7 yrs and 8-16 yrs, where we build a show in a week. Non students are welcome to attend. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|