New diploma encourages artistic flair

13/03/2009

Oriel High School's Performing Arts students in action

In a major coup, a school and college partnership has secured the support of world renowned opera house Glyndebourne for an exciting new diploma run collaboratively by Oriel High School and Central Sussex College.

The innovative new diploma qualification has been designed as an alternative to GCSEs and A levels, offering hands-on training across a range of industries. The diploma is open to 16 to 19 year olds, and is equivalent to seven GCSEs grade A-C.

Glyndebourne, near Lewes in East Sussex, was keen to be the supporting employer for the new course which is running at Oriel High School in Maidenbower, Crawley, and Central Sussex College's Crawley campus. The famous auditorium will play a large part in the students' education as they study for a qualification which will encompass music, theatre and the media, touching on areas such as journalism, film, animation and visual arts.

For those interested in a career in media or the arts, the course will give them an opportunity to prepare for the world of work, providing hands-on experience alongside their studies in the classroom. As part of their studies, students will be asked to devise, plan and perform a production, inspired by a newly commissioned work, to go on tour in the local area, and be asked to produce documentaries of the entire project while learning specific media and marketing skills to support the production.

Robert Marr, Course Co-ordinator at Oriel High School, said of the new course: "The Creative and Media Diploma is an exciting new qualification - it offers students so much breadth across different creative and media disciplines. It also enables them to work alongside industry in projects which are real and form a part of the development plan of the businesses involved. In that respect, we are delighted to be collaborating with Glyndebourne, a partnership which will allow students a priceless glimpse of how the performing industry operates at the very highest international standards."