BASE Academy at TASIS England

One main course in dance, singing and drama, run with BASE Studios, a London dance and performing arts studio. Students work with experienced performing arts instructors on technique, confidence and creativity, and see at first hand what training in London's performing arts world is like. Unlike the School's other academies, this one takes no elective course: students spend the whole programme on performing arts training. Teaching is split between the BASE complex in London and the School campus, so students stay part of the wider summer community while they train. Places are selective and applicants submit a video showing their talent in dance and/or singing as part of the application.

The programme fee covers tuition on the performing arts course, boarding on the School campus, all meals, the activity and sports programme, the excursion programme and airport transfers. Students travel between the campus and the London studios as part of the course.

Students board on the School campus in separate boys’ and girls’ accommodation, and are placed by age group. Rooms hold between one and three students, and the large majority are double rooms shared by two. Room allocation is decided by the School to keep the boarding environment safe and inclusive; friends and siblings are not placed together, so that every student meets new people. Accommodation is not available before the opening day of a session or after five in the afternoon on the published closing day.

Meals are served by the School dining service and are part of the programme. The menu changes through the week and always includes vegetarian dishes and a salad bar; dishes containing meat, wheat and lactose are labelled. The campus is nut free. Allergies, intolerances and special diets are listed by the family on the medical form before arrival, and the School then advises on the arrangements it can make.

Afternoons, evenings and weekends follow the wider summer programme: sports and campus events, and trips that take in London landmarks, West End theatre, Chelsea Football Club and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, with destinations further afield including Oxford and Brighton.

The programme uses the School’s 46-acre campus in Thorpe, Surrey, west of London. It holds classrooms, boarding houses, a dining hall, outdoor playing fields, a fitness centre and the rest of the sports provision the summer programme draws on. The on-campus Health and Well-being Center has nursing staff on duty around the clock, and a hospital is nearby. Course work also takes place at the BASE complex near Vauxhall in London, where six purpose-built studios sit beneath the railway arches, each named after an iconic artist, among them Jackson, Timberlake, Astaire, Britney, Chaplin and James Brown.

Students of the academy train alongside performers of their own age and live on campus with students from more than fifty countries. The day is structured, boarding houses are staffed, and the afternoons and evenings are filled by the wider programme, so a child can arrive on their own and still feel at home. English is the working language of the campus, inside the studio and outside it.