Best Schools for Performing Arts, Abu Dhabi, Dubai

And now the ones to watch – those schools with an existing reputation for excellence in the field of Performing Arts or a clear commitment to growing their resources and reputation…

Kings Schools Dubai (Al Barsha and Umm Suqeim)

Kings’ leadership believes that Creativity, Responsibility, Risk Taking, Collaboration, Reflection are skills crucial to being successful in life and that they are also skills nurtured and honed through the Performing Arts.

The school notes “Brecht, said ‘Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

The opportunities in the performing arts given to children today lay foundations to enable children to think creatively, to take risks, to take responsibility and to collaborate; key skills required for children to shape their own future.

Children are offered a wide range of opportunities to acquire and develop skills in music and the performing arts across a range of disciplines. This starts in the classroom with specialist music teachers deliver music tuition from Foundation Stage through to Year 6 in the Primary schools.

All students from FS 1-Year 6 inclusive have 1 lesson of between 20 minutes and 40 minutes weekly. For Foundation stage children, classroom music provision focuses on the developing a love of music through song and dance. In Years 1 and 2 children begin to learn basic music theory including notation and apply what they have learnt to tuned and untuned percussion. From Years 3 -6 children continue their music theory studies, which become increasingly complex and learn an instrument in parallel. For Years 3 & 4 this is the recorder, and in Years 5 & 6 this in the ukulele.

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 At every stage of learning in music, children are given the opportunity to perform. Curriculum music performances are delivered in the form of Music Showcases per year group, where children can share their learning in music with their parents in a formal setting.

The Primary music team also prepares the children for performing in class assemblies; where acting, music and dance are showcased, often alongside individuals’ talents. Each Primary class in school performs a class assembly every year, which gives every child a moment in the spotlight in a supportive setting in front of peers and parents.

In Secondary school, students receive one 50min lesson per week as part of the compulsory curriculum in Years 7-9. Students learn the following topics at Key Stage 3: Year 7 – Building Blocks of Music, Samba, Rap, Graphic Score; Year 8 – Rondo, Egyptian Music, Ground Bass, Blues; Year 9 – Reggae, Minimalism, Battle of the Bands, African Drumming.  Students in years 10-11 can study GCSE Music and from September 2017, the Secondary School will offer GCE A Level Music and GCE A Level Music Technology options.

Kings’ facilitates peripatetic instrumental tuition from the Centre for Musical Arts, and children learn a range of instruments including piano, violin, voice, guitar, clarinet and trombone. Through CMA, children are entered for ABRSM graded exams

For children who might learn instruments outside of school, or simply have a talent they wish to share, the schools regularly host ‘Let’s Perform’ Concerts, informal concerts held directly after school. Often this is the starting point for students who go on to perform in front of much larger audiences in subsequent years.

At Kings Umm Suqeim, a highlight of the performance calendar is Arts Week, where children, parents and teachers are all invited to perform in one of 10 concerts that take place throughout the week. The focus of the week is that of celebration and inspiration, in the hope that increasingly more children are inspired to get up on stage and ‘have a go’.

At Kings Al Barsha, Dance is taught as part of the PE curriculum with a dedicated dance studio and dance teacher. Dance Squad just entered in UAE Competition; Ballet and Dance is also offered as an ECA.

The Secondary Performing Arts team also has 3 Drama staff. Drama is compulsory in KS3 (Years7, 8 and 9) and is extremely popular at GCSE with an average of 40% of students opting for GCSE Drama. A Level Drama and Theatre is currently the most popular non-core option at Sixth form with as many students opting for this as there are for Mathematics!

In KS3, Drama is taught in specialised, dedicated spaces once weekly and at GCSE level, 3 times weekly. A Level students who will have this option from September 2017, will attend 6 lessons per week. There are also opportunities for students to further their development in productions ranging from large scale full length performances to conceptual devised work, monologues, duologues and showcase evenings.

Students currently work from a flexible black box studio theatre and the academic year 2017/18 will see performances spring to life in the state of the art auditorium space. In addition, outside performances take place in the courtyard at the very core of the school.

In a sign of genuine commitment to the Performing Arts, Kings is unique in offering scholarship opportunities to GSCE (available for years 6-10 students) and A Level (years 12-13) students demonstrating excellence in the Performing Arts. The GCSE scholarship is on offer for a maximum period of six years when joining in Year 7, with entry in later years also available. The A Level scholarship is available for the duration of the two year A Level period. Those who are accepted will benefit from a reduction of up to 50 percent off their annual school fees.

The highly selective programme, in its second year, is open to both current Kings’ students and external candidates. Applicants will need to demonstrate excellence Music or Drama alongside a significant Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) score.

In September 2017, The Acting Space, Dubai, a drama school for those who demonstrate an almost singular passion for drama and theatre, will open its doors at Kings School Al Barsha and will deliver acting classes and workshops to the community.

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