What is the Brit School?

Brit School, Croydon

At last week's Creative Workshop at Escape Studios, we had four applicants from a single school. They were classmates, who had applied to Escape Studios together.  Unusually, all of them had excellent portfolios.

Since it's not that common for us to have a large number of very high quality applicants from one institution, it made me want to know more about the school, and who is teaching there.

The school they are studying at is called the Brit school, and it has a special focus on the creative arts.

So, what is the Brit school, and what is it that they are doing to produce students of such high calibre?
 

About the Brit School
According to Wikipedia, The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology is a British performing arts and technology school located in Croydon, England, with a mandate to provide education and training for the performing arts, media, art and design.

It's an unusual school for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is selective, unlike most publicly-funded secondary schools in the UK. Also, as you might expect, it has produced a significant number of famous alumni in the creative industries, including singers Amy Winehouse, Adele, Jessie J, and the actor Tom Holland.

The Brit school was founded in 1992, and is entirely funded by the British Government. Despite this, it is an independent school, separate from (and therefore without interference from) the local education authority.  It is one of only three performing arts and technology schools in the country that are free to attend, and the only one in the south of England.

Digital Arts
What struck me was how impressive the students' portfolios were. All four were all studying digital arts, being trained in the right software (Maya) and all of them had already managed to go beyond the basics of learning technology to develop their own creative voice.  Creativity, after all, can only emerge once the student has mastered basic techniques.

So all praise to the Brit school, and the impressive results they are getting.  We look forward to meeting more of their students, and seeing more excellent portfolios.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2019, follow this link.  To apply, visit the offical page here.