A performing arts school where academic performance also shines
Pupils benefit from an outstanding academic education, whilst being able to specialise in Dance, Musical Theatre, Acting and Commercial Music courses.
Our balanced curriculum sets us apart from other schools and provides pupils with a well-rounded education, enabling them to achieve high academic excellence and versatility as a performer.
Welcome
Tring Park School is a co-educational boarding and day school based in Hertfordshire, UK, educating and training young people from the age of 7 to 19. Pupils receive rigorous training in the performing arts, that is combined with an extensive academic programme of study. Our Preps benefit from a unique private school education with an emphasis on performing arts and creativity. From Year 7, pupils can specialise in either Dance or Performance Foundation, with the option to focus on Dance, Commercial Music, Musical Theatre or Acting at Sixth Form level.
Our pupils are dedicated, committed, enthusiastic, and hard working. It’s an energetic and vibrant atmosphere – and that is something that quickly rubs off on new pupils.
A message from our...
Andrew J McGarva
Principal
Tring Park is a distinctive place. We bring together a genuine fusion of natural talent and creativity, combined with fine teaching and training. Through our dual curriculum, we combine excellent academic study with professional-level vocational training, so our young people leave us as rounded individuals ready for life, not just trained performers but thinking performers.
We are a remarkable and energetic community, and we want every young person to feel that they belong from the day they arrive. Life here is busy and purposeful, and whether in the classroom, the studio or the boarding house, we support and challenge our pupils in equal measure. Every pupil is unique, with their own blend of ability and ambition, and we come to know each one so we can shape their training and education around what they need.
We are not simply preparing our young people for the next audition, the next exam or the next performance. We are giving them the versatility and resilience for a future in the performing arts, and for creative lives beyond it.
You can feel our energy the moment you visit. Look at our timetable on any given week, and you will see how much is happening, in class and beyond it. We stage productions across all our vocational departments in our own Markova Theatre throughout the year, supported by our young people and staff from across the school.
All of this performing, training and learning takes real dedication and commitment from everyone here, staff and pupils alike, and together we build a stimulating environment within a genuinely supportive community.
Come and visit us to see and experience Tring Park for yourself. We very much look forward to welcoming you.
Sofia
Lead Prefect
The first thing you notice when you walk through the gates of Tring Park is probably how loud we are. But behind the noise is an unmistakable buzz, fuelled by the passion and ambition of young people with big dreams.
My own Tring Park journey began long before I became a pupil here. When I was five, I attended a Tring Park summer camp in Singapore and decided this was where I wanted to go to school. Despite my persistent campaigning — or, as my parents might call it, constant nagging — it took another eight years before they finally agreed! Moving halfway across the world was daunting, but from my first day, that Tring Park energy made me feel I belonged.
What makes Tring so special is that no one pursues those dreams alone. Every day, we are surrounded by people who share the same determination to develop their craft. We learn from one another, celebrate each other’s successes and support each other through challenges, creating a community that truly feels like the Tring Park family.
At Tring, we are given the opportunity to thrive both vocationally and academically. Alongside a strong academic education, our vocational training challenges us to develop our craft and put what we learn into practice both on and off stage. The discipline, commitment and resilience we develop through our vocational studies also strengthen our academic work, teaching us to manage our time, balance competing demands and approach setbacks with determination. Most importantly, our teachers genuinely care about each pupil’s progress, encouraging us to grow into confident, resilient and independent young people.
Jaxon and I, together with the prefect team, are excited to support every student throughout their Tring Park journey. We are committed to encouraging everyone to dream big, build resilience and help one another turn those dreams into reality. Together, we hope to carry forward the passion, ambition and sense of community that make Tring Park such a special place to belong.
Jaxon
Lead Prefect
Our Vision, Purpose, Aims & Values
Vision
To be the pre-eminent centre of excellence for training and educating the next generation of the world’s most versatile performance artists.
Purpose
We provide a creative environment in which pupils with a love of the performing arts can flourish. A vocational, arts-based education enhances all aspects of our pupils’ learning and allows them to develop life skills such as creative thinking, confidence and resilience. Our vocational training in dance, drama, musical theatre, music and technical theatre provides students with the best possible opportunities for a career in the performing arts. Combining this with a full academic curriculum and qualifications gives them access additionally to a wide range of other career options. In short, Tring Park’s integrated dual curriculum gives pupils the best opportunity to fulfil their potential. Our excellent pastoral care and commitment to safeguarding provide pupils with a safe, caring and supportive environment in which to pursue their studies.
Aims
We aim to provide this education to pupils from all backgrounds who have the potential to benefit from this specialist environment, and to make our specialist facilities and teaching expertise more widely available to children and young adults with talent and potential beyond the School.
Values
At Tring Park School, we value Excellence, Creativity and Resilience. We also promote social and life skills such as collaboration, adaptability, tolerance, consideration for others and self-discipline, in order to prepare pupils to be successful and valued members of society. Training in the performing arts places a key emphasis on these values.
Our History
- The first Mansion was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built by Henry Guy around 1673. Guy was Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles II.
- In 1702 Guy sells the estate to Sir William Gore, Lord Mayor of London.
- In 1786 Sir Drummond Smith buys the estate. He becomes the first Baronet of Tring Park.
- 1823 William Kay buys the estate but rents it out.
- 1872 Baron Lionel Rothschild buys the estate for his son Nathaniel, who later becomes the 1st Lord Rothschild. By 1888 Nathaniel Rothschild had encased the Wren house with the house you see today. He doubled the house in size and added a floor.
- The Rothschilds had moved out by the start of World War II but used the Mansion as a place to store documents from the Rothschild Bank in London and a place of safety for expectant mothers from the east-end of London, helped by their Jewish charities.
- The school arrived in 1945 and has been present ever since.
1919
Olive Mary Ripman (co-founder) was born in 1886, in Teddington, Middlesex. It is believed she started her first dance school in Croydon around 1919 at the age of 33. Olive Ripman was, by the 1930’s, a highly respected dance teacher and chorographer whose reputation preceded her. Olive Ripman died in Newton Abbot, Devon in 1981.
1922
Grace Cone (co-founder), full name Angela Nadine Grace Cohn, was born in Lewisham in 1892. The Cone family were originally from Germany and came to the United Kingdom sometime between 1885 and 1891. The earliest newspaper cuttings found see Grace dancing at the age of 17 in Worthing in 1909 and her applying for licences to London County Council for her dancing business in 1927. Grace Cone died in Hove, Brighton in 1980.
1940
The school moved to ‘Loddington Hall’, Uppingham in Leicestershire. ‘The Sketch’ newspaper did a piece on the school and took some unusual photographs! The house was once again requisitioned, this time by the Paratrooper Regiment, so they moved back south to Folly Court in Wokingham. After a short stay at Wokingham the next move was to ‘Rawdon Hall’, Holyport near Maidenhead. The last move before they came to Tring, was to a farmhouse called ‘Ystumllyn’, an old 16th century building near Porthmadog in Wales.
1945
The school moved to the Rothschild Mansion in Tring Park. During the war the Rothschild Mansion was used by the Rothschild Bank for administration and to house important documents, which they wanted to store away from the bombing in the capital. The Mansion was also used as a hospital for people from the east end of London who were struggling with life and the blitz.
1949
During the war years the school’s name was a bit of a mystery but in 1947 we know it was called ‘The Cone Ripman School’. Then in 1948 the school’s name was changed to the ‘Tring Park School of Theatrical Arts’. By 1949 it was changed again to the ‘Arts Educational Schools’. Eventually the two schools became more commonly known as, ‘ArtsEd Tring’ and ‘ArtsEd London'.
1960s
In 1963 Grace Cone and Olive Ripman took a backseat and Beryl Grey an ex-student, later to be Dame Beryl Grey became the Director of the School. 1955 Mrs Hearn became Principal of the school and she retired in 1967. Miss Janet Sinclair took over but for a year then Marie Jack arrived and was to stay for the next 19 years.
1970s
In 1970 The Arts Educational Schools Trust, then still allied with AES London in Chiswick, acquired the freehold of the Mansion and 17 acres of the former park and gardens from the Rothschild family. Things are beginning to change, and great plans are being made.
1980s
The new School dining room was built in 1982 and was named the Cone-Ripman Hall in honour of the founders. A plan was developed to build a school theatre. An Appeals Committee was set up to raise funds for construction of what was to become the “Markova Theatre”. In 1988 Marie Jack collected her OBE at Buckingham Palace. Mrs Jack retired in 1989. Mrs Margaret Sweet was appointed Headmistress.
1994
In 1994 the decision was taken to separate from AES London. When the Schools separated, Tring Park School was set up as an independent company with the title ‘AES Tring Park School Trust’. As part of the separation, the Tring school acquired freehold title to Tring Park.
1998
In 1998 the school won the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year Competition, under the direction of Vaugh Meakins. The choir later toured America. The picture is from a performance the choir did with Val Doonican.
2000s
In 2001 Mr Stefan Anderson was appointed Principal of the school. In 2002, the science laboratories in the ‘New Block’ were enlarged and refurbished, together with the IT Suite and the Design and Textiles Room. The Courtyard area was also completely reconfigured. In 2007 Eve Pettinger became a Member of the order of the British Empire. In 2009 the school changed its name to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts.
2011
2011 saw the opening of five new dance studios and won a design award presented by The Chilterns Conservation Board. The Commercial Music Course arrived one year later in 2012.
2016
The School Choir, known as the 16, won the BBC Songs of Praise Choir of the Year, under the direction of Liz Norris. The 16 once again won the award in 2019.
2019
Elizabeth House was finished in 2019 and now houses a theatre set design space, three large performances spaces and two classrooms on the lower ground floor with seventy-two bedrooms on the other three floors.