Beatles Gig (Music)
The BRIT School in 2024
Dance Vision (Dance)
Steer The Stars (Musical Theatre)

The BRIT School (British Record Industry Trust) is a selective free-to-attend performing and creative arts secondary school in Selhurst, Croydon, England, with a mandate to provide education and vocational training for the performing arts, music, music technology, theatre, musical theatre, dance, applied theatre, production arts, creative arts, film and media production, digital arts, visual arts and design. The school has many notable alumni.

The school opened on 22 October 1991 under the City Technology College programme and is separate from the local education authority. The Department for Education provides 71% of the school's funding and the remainder comes from fundraising and commercial income, including contributions by the British Record Industry Trust (BRIT) and proceeds from broadcasting rights to the annual Brit Awards. About 90% of its students are from London.

The school has two professional theatres, the Obie Theatre, which can seat audiences of up to 324 and standing audiences up to 500; and the BRIT Theatre, which opened in January 2012 and seats audiences of up to 280. There are also various dance studios, musical theatre studios, and TV and radio studios.

History

The BRIT School was founded by Mark Featherstone-Witty, who was inspired by Alan Parker's 1980s film Fame to create a secondary school specialising in the performing arts to help students enter the industry, which at that time had many barriers.

He asked Sir Richard Branson to fund the school; Branson agreed on the condition that other record companies also contributed. Funding was received from the British Phonographic Industry.

George Martin also provided early funding for the school and helped design its recording studio.

The school was also supported by Margaret Thatcher's City Technology College initiative.

In June 1990, the Knebworth Festival, organized by Richard Branson, raised £2.5 million for the school with a festival attended by 120,000 people that featured performances by Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Elton John, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Cliff Richard, and Tears for Fears.

Elizabeth II visited the school in 2002.

In 2012, in a £5 million expansion, the school acquired and renovated part of the adjacent former Selhurst High School building. Three new courses, Production Arts, Interactive Digital Design (now known as Digital Arts) and Community Arts Practise (now Applied Theatre) were introduced.

Former principal Sir Nick Williams was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to education.

By 2017, alumni of the school had sold a combined 125 million albums.

YouTube Music funded a Television Studio that opened in 2019 for Film & Media Production students. This was in response to the student-run show "The BRIT Live" which airs on the BRIT School's YouTube channel, giving the students their own studio and control room for broadcasting.

In 2022, the school was awarded a PRS for Music heritage award for shaping UK Art and culture for 30 years.

Entry requirements

Entry to any of the school's courses is initially by application. If applicants meet the initial entry criteria, they may then be invited to interview or workshop in their chosen focus (strand) (either film and media production (FMP), Applied Theatre, dance, digital arts, music, music technology, musical theatre, production arts, theatre, or visual arts & design), for sixth-form entry students, plus a meeting with relevant tutors. Entry to the music course also includes aural and music theory tests and an audition, with entry to the dance, theatre, visual art & design, and musical theatre courses also including audition rounds. The school is known for being selective in its admissions and though it has a large catchment area, students outside this area are granted a place only if they show unusual merit.

An article by BBC News published in 2011 discussed whether students who are accepted by the school get an unfair advantage in creative arts industries over those who did not.

Curriculum

Even though most students intend to make a career in the arts, entertainment and communications industries, they must follow full-time courses to completion.

The school teaches the following courses:

Strand/CourseInt.KS4Post-16Year 14Notes
Creative Arts
Film & Media ProductionFMP✓✓formerly 'Media, Art & Design' and 'Broadcast and Digital Communication'
Digital ArtsDA✓✓formerly 'Interactive Digital Design' Graphic Design, Illustration, Animation, 3D Art, Typography
Visual Arts & DesignVAD✓✓split into Fashion, Styling and Textiles
Production ArtsPA✓formerly 'Production Arts & Technology' and 'Technical Theatre Arts'
Performing Arts
Theatre✓✓✓year 14 students are required to be internal post-16 students to apply
Music✓✓
Music Technology✓
Musical TheatreMT✓✓
Dance✓✓
Applied TheatreAT✓formerly 'Community Arts Practice' (changed 2022)

Notable alumni

Notable alumni include:

External links