Italia Conti Arts Centre Limited

Further education and skills inspection report

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Inspection of Italia Conti Arts Centre Limited

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Good Education programmes for young people Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Information about this provider

Italia Conti Arts Centre Limited (The Arts Centre) is a performing arts academy based in Guildford. It is an independent company linked to the Italia Conti Academy based at the Barbican, London. It has its own contract with the Education and Skills Funding Agency for Dance and Drama awards (DaDA).

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Information about this provider

The Arts Centre offers a range of courses, including the three-year Trinity Level 6 Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre that is in scope for this inspection. In 2021/22, 50 students were enrolled on this course. Of these, 14 were in receipt of DaDA funding. 9 and 10 March 2022

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Students at Italia Conti Arts Centre Limited enthusiastically absorb themselves in their course because they recognise how instrumental it could be in launching their career. Their teachers are experienced practitioners, with high levels of expertise and knowledge of the performing arts industry. They use these well to introduce their students to the performing arts industry and to teach them the skills they need to be successful performers. Through the high-quality training they receive, students are well prepared for their next steps and develop the attitudes and knowledge they need to be effective professionals.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Leaders have designed a curriculum that builds students’ skills, regardless of their previous experience. For example, dancers become competent singers, and actors learn to be confident dancers. Teachers carefully get to know each student and their aspirations. They successfully use their teaching skills to nurture everyone’s talents so that students are ready to move into jobs as performers.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Leaders have created a strong sense of community within the course. Students work closely together to support each other as they experiment with techniques and skills. They are generous in their encouragement of each other as they put in the long hours needed to learn, practise and refine the skills they are taught. Students nearing the end of their course thoughtfully pass on their experience to newer students to ease their passage through the course.

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better?

Leaders take account of feedback from partners and professionals in the performance industry to provide a curriculum that prepares students well for a career in musical theatre. This curriculum is firmly centred on the core skills that students need. It also reflects new opportunities and practices in the industry. These are taught by the highly experienced teachers, as well as a very good range of visiting practitioners. For example, actors teach students how to act for animation and provide voice-overs, dance teachers have incorporated a 1970s dance form into dance classes as it has re-emerged recently in professional productions, and a visiting performer has taught students circus skills. In response to changes in professional practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, students are taught how to prepare for, and behave in, online auditions.

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better?

Across all subjects, teachers plan a curriculum that develops students’ technique and skills over time. For example, in ballet, teachers ensure that students are fluent in applying correct and accurate alignment, technique and posture. Subsequently, students develop more complex technique and repertoire so that, when they leave, they can perform fluently using well-embedded technique.

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better?

Teachers make effective use of demonstration, modelling, practice and repetition to develop students’ understanding and competence in key technical elements and also when rehearsing large-scale musicals. 9 and 10 March 2022

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Students who sit out of classes due to injury are sometimes directed to undertake carefully chosen practical work that does not exacerbate the injury they have sustained, but often they are not learning enough.

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Teachers and specialist staff support students with special educational needs and/or disabilities well in their contextual studies and theoretical work. As a result, these students are as successful as students who do not need such support. Teachers closely monitor students’ progress against clearly expressed targets. However, staff do not share information about these students’ progress well enough, so teachers do not always know when to change the curriculum or teaching for these students.

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Mostly, students prepare well for their lessons. However, in a small number of cases, they do not carry out the contextual research. For example, when choosing a song from a musical to perform, some do not research the plot, synopsis or character’s relationships.

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As a result of the high-quality training and well-structured curriculum, a very high proportion of students complete and achieve their Trinity Diploma and move into the performance industry. Leaders have taken effective action to increase the numbers of students who secure work in large-scale musical theatre tours and West End productions.

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In practical workshops and lessons, students watch and listen intently. They behave professionally and constructively when providing well-considered reflections on each other’s work. As a result, students reflect and take on board each other’s ideas for improving their acting.

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Teachers provide students with timely and useful feedback on their vocational work, which students use well to improve their practice in the future. However, teachers do not provide the same quality of feedback to students for other work that they produce and do not use their assessments well enough to set goals for students.

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Students are not always supported well enough when they ask for help with personal matters, particularly in relation to their mental health. Leaders do not ensure that students have confidence in the help and advice that staff provide.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

When serious concerns about a student arise, staff work closely with the student and each other to provide the support that the student needs. Managers record such incidents thoroughly. However, they do not analyse the records of safeguarding and welfare concerns sufficiently. As a result, senior leaders and governors do not have a summary of trends and actions taken that they need in order to consider how to support students as their needs change. 9 and 10 March 2022

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Leaders carry out the necessary checks when recruiting new staff and bringing in guest professional practitioners to provide workshops or lectures. Staff, including those responsible for safeguarding, are trained in their responsibilities.

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What does the provider need to do to improve?

 Teachers should provide useful feedback to students on all aspects of the curriculum and use their knowledge of students’ progress to set students’ goals.  Leaders should ensure that students receive useful advice and support when they raise personal matters with staff.  Senior leaders, including governors, should improve the reports they receive about safeguarding and use the information in these reports to inform the support they provide to students. 9 and 10 March 2022

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Provider details

Address 221 Epsom Road Guildford GU1 2RE

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Provider details

Date of previous inspection 9 and 10 March 2022 9 and 10 March 2022

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the head of quality assurance and academic partnership liaison, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans. The inspection was carried out using the further education and skills inspection handbook and took into account all relevant provision at the provider. Inspectors collected a wide range of evidence to inform judgements, including visiting learning sessions, scrutinising students’ work, seeking the views of students and staff, and examining the provider’s documentation and records.

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Inspection team

Steven Tucker, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Christina Christou Ofsted Inspector Judy Lye-Forster Her Majesty’s Inspector 9 and 10 March 2022

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