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. Pupils receive rigorous training in the performing arts, that is combined with an extensive academic programme of study. At age eight, 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...
Stefan Anderson
Principal
Tring Park School for the Performing Arts provides an environment which allows for a fusion of natural talent and creativity combined with fine teaching and training.
What we offer here is unique. Talented children and young people benefit from an excellent standard of teaching in the Performing Arts, and this is reinforced by a very high level of academic education. This results in rounded individuals who are fully prepared for life; not just trained performers, but ‘thinking’ performers. It is this depth and breadth of education that will give them the best possible chances in their future careers.
We know that every single one of our pupils is different, each with their own blend of ability and ambition. We endeavour to provide a training and education which meets the needs of each pupil and allows them to achieve their very best.
Tring Park is a very exciting place to be. Visitors comment on the buzz and energy that is about the place. A cursory glance at the timetable will show how much we do during the week, vocationally and academically, both inside and outside school. Additionally, all our vocational departments present productions that run in our own Markova Theatre throughout the academic year.
All this performing, training and learning requires a great deal of dedication and commitment from both staff and pupils and this creates a stimulating environment within a supportive community.
Come and visit us to see and experience the school for yourself – I very much look forward to welcoming you.
Maddie Buchanan
Head Girl
For the past four years Tring Park has been my home from home and my rock. When I joined the school as a shy thirteen-year-old, I could not have imagined where I am today, writing my welcome message as Head Girl.
Tring is unlike any other school, and you really do have to be here to understand the unique education and community that it offers each and every student.
When I first started at Tring, walking into a buzzing dorm of six, on the top floor of Mansion House, I was thankful for the nurturing pastoral staff who comforted my homesickness, as well as all the friends I have made who I can truly say are friends for life.
Over the years, the incredible academic staff have taught me self-belief to gain a great set of GCSE results that have provided a platform for my A level studies that I love.
And of course, one of the main reasons we come to Tring is for the totally amazing vocational staff, who have honed my dancing skills to become not only an employable dancer but have shaped me as an individual and equipped me with skills for life, no matter what path I take.
Crazy, jam-packed schedules are the norm at Tring and something I had to get used to, but when my after-school hobby became part of my school life, it’s hard not to enjoy every day.
I know I will look back on my Tring years as being the most fun and truly brilliant time of my life and I am grateful every day to be here. I wish you all the very best and I hope everyone has a fabulous year!
Brook Jenkins
Head Boy
There is something very special about Tring Park. Something which is difficult to put into words.
Being surrounded by like-minded individuals who all have a certain drive and motivation to succeed not only drives you as a person, but creates certain friendships (rarely found anywhere else) built on the foundations of a passionate, nurturing and thriving school environment.
Having only recently joined Tring, I understand and fully appreciate the tumultuous feelings one new student can experience in such a “full-on” school. But rest assured, it is a magical and unmatchable feeling when you realise how unique and great Tring is.
My previous school was very different to Tring and what now almost seems like a completely different lifestyle. I was very lucky in that Performing Arts was widely accepted at my old school, but it was still not seen as the most “in” thing to do. Therefore, I am incredibly grateful and appreciative that Tring enables you to really come out of your shell and feel like you truly fit in – academically, vocationally and most importantly as a person.
I can strongly say that deciding to attend the school has been the one of the best decisions I have made so far. Pupils’ success here can not only be attributed to the outstanding facilities and the dedicated teaching staff, but also to the well-grounded community that this school thrives on. In agreement with all the current pupils here, I can confidently say that joining the Tring Park community will be the best choice you make. Here’s to a wonderful (hopefully Covid free!) year.
Our Mission and Values
Tring Park School for the Performing Arts’ mission is to provide the best combined vocational and academic education in the UK. The School aims to provide this education to talented pupils from all backgrounds and to extend its specialist facilities and teaching expertise to children and young adults with talent or potential in the wider community.
Our values are Excellence, Creativity and Resilience. It promotes social and life skills such as tolerance, consideration for others, self-discipline, and resilience in order to prepare pupils to be successful and valued members of society.
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 have been present ever since.
With thanks to Mike Hutchinson for providing us with the history of the school.
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. 1965 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.
2014
In 2014 the school started a national tour for its graduate year dancers under the directorship of Antony Dowson, and the company, known as Encore, now performs annually at ten theatres nationwide each spring.
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.
Tring Park Vacancies
Tring Park offers a wide range of benefits (role dependent) including a pension scheme, cycle to work scheme, free school lunches during term time, free onsite parking and enhanced maternity and paternity schemes.