Admission details into the 
Junior Performing Arts Academy

The Shenfield High School Junior Performing Arts Academy is a place where students who are passionate about all areas of the performing arts can further hone their skills. The academy is for students who love performing to a live audience and are looking to develop their skills and knowledge across the three main performing arts disciplines – drama, dance and singing.

Students in the academy benefit every week from additional acting, dancing and singing sessions outside of their regular timetable. The additional training the Junior Academy members receive is designed to enhance their performance skills across all three areas of the Performing Arts (acting, singing and dancing) to help them become well rounded performers.

Junior Academy members are provided with ample opportunity throughout each school year to showcase and develop their performance skills; for example, in the Whole School Musical, Lower School Play, termly Music Concerts and at external performance opportunities such as local fairs and performance competitions which all build towards their own final performance showcasing their individual and full company talent to an invited audience.

Members of the Junior Academy also benefit from masterclasses with outside practitioners, one to one audition guidance and additional opportunities to visit theatres and live shows to help develop and widen their understanding of the performing arts industry. The Junior Academy is designed for dedicated and committed students who wish to develop their performance skills and ability further throughout their time at Shenfield High School.

Entry to the academy is through aptitude testing in Year 6. To gain a place in the Junior Performing Arts Academy, students must submit a self-tape, showcasing their abilities in singing, dancing and acting. Students must submit their self-tapes and a supporting application form by the deadline date. If students are successful in this first round of auditions, they will then be asked to attend a performing arts boot camp in the October before they are due to start secondary school. Opportunities to audition for the academy in later years is a possibility if spaces become available in the academy. The Junior Performing Arts Academy has the capacity to take 14 students each year, which is made up of a maximum of 12 places through the aptitude process and students remain in the academy until the end of Year 11, with the hope that if they gain a place at our Sixth Form, they will progress onto the Senior Performing Arts Academy

For more information about the Junior Performing Arts Academy please email: h.richardson@shenfield.essex.sch.uk