“You’ve got some magic going on here!”
Mrs A Smith, August 2008
People have said some lovely things about what we do over the past 12 years but this quote is our favourite. Perhaps this is because ‘magic’ implies something indefinable?
There is something very different at Best – the energy, the fun, the friendship, the loyalty of our children, parents and staff, the work ethic, the overarching commitment to ‘being Best’. We know we are positively different and everyone tells us we are but with so many theatre schools and the ever-growing number of drama classes for kids to choose from in the St Albans and Hertford areas how can any parent make a decision based on these kinds of claims. When asked what makes us special or different we say this;
“Visit us, visit our competitors, then make up your mind. You’ll choose the theatre school that’s best for your child.”
The Best difference...
As well as ensuring the experience of our acting, singing and dancing classes is of the highest possible quality we are always thinking of new ways to make the Best experience even more special. A good part of this relies on feedback from our parents and students which we are always pleased to receive. We run online surveys from time to time to encourage people to tell us what they (really) think and we are always available during class time for a chat or during the week on e-mail or telephone.
Surprise is a good way of keeping things fresh! Here are a few things we have done...
Act Your Shoe Size
We wanted to celebrate our 10th anniversary and decided to invite parents to join their children in class for a day. The results were then performed in the theatre for partners, friends and siblings. It was a fantastic day which none of us (especially the parents who took part) will ever forget. this directly led to the foundation of The Feelgood Factor!
We also gave every child a Best Bear, an eco-bag and a t-shirt.
5 wonderful years, 1 wonderful day!
On our 5th anniversary we invited all our students and parents to a summer barbecue complete with magicians and a disco for the children. Over 200 people attended - we never knew our back garden could hold so many! The weather was superb and the whole day was simply magical.
Half term Hullabaloos
Often the week before half term we run a special theme for the week - Halloween, Superheroes, Disney etc. Children come in fancy dress and we work on special songs, dances and scenes. Sometimes children are invited to bring a friend.
NSPCC Staying Safe Commitment Scheme
We were keen to ensure our child care policies met the most stringent of standards and were hugely proud when we in 2008 were the only school of our type in the UK to be accredited under the NSPCC Staying Safe Commitment Scheme.
Achieving this required all our childcare policies and processes to be rigorously scrutinised to ensure we were eoperating to the very highest standards of care.
