School Performance Measures

ESA was created to be a different type of school. We are a University Technical College. We train 14 to 19 year olds in technical and vocational education designed to support them into meaningful employment and further training in the professional creative arts industry. We have developed a curriculum and a culture of education to empower our students to express themselves artistically and professionally and to become characters of integrity, compassion and creative commitment. Our specialist curriculum and emphasis on character means that our provision [which we passionately believe in and are mightily proud of] does not always align with the Government’s model of an overly academic, overly standardised, EBACC centered, Progress-8 and exam-based education system.

To those looking to embrace the arts as an essential form of education, we offer a broad and balanced specialist creative curriculum of industry-oriented subjects underpinned by leaders in arts education such as the University of the Arts London and RSL. Many of our staff are industry educators with years of experience in training, performing and creating in their fields.

We do not play the ‘Performance Table’ game. Many of our valued subjects, which are very meaningful to our industry are not scored in this educational system. We are therefore not favoured by their rankings. We champion our own vision of education and our curriculum has been developed with our industry partners to create pipelines into working and training in the creative sector. .

If you wish to view the performance tables you can visit them by clicking the link below.

Please note, the following guidance is published by the Department for Education and Oftsed which applies to our type of educational setting:

The government’s ambition for EBacc does not apply to UTCs because they provide a specialist technical and professional education.

The Progress 8 accountability measure is not the most appropriate performance indicator for UTCs. These establishments typically start educating pupils at age 14 and have a focus on preparing pupils for their future careers. Inspectors will pay attention to other measures, particularly pupils’ destinations when they leave the UTC or studio school.