What comes to your mind when you hear ‘Performing Arts School’? A place for dancing and singing stars of the future? Well yes, but there is much more to performing arts schools than that. They provide great perceptible benefits, stimulating the body and mind (Apart from being fabulously fun!). With the number of working parents increasing, children spend less time with adults planning activities, creating or imagining an outcome and working towards it.

Professor Shirley Brice, American linguistic anthropologist at Stanford University says ”Children after the age of eight spend very little time with their parents in task activities. They may spend time at the dinner table or time in the car going to a baseball game, but they don’t spend time doing a task. This means that kids today are not engaging in language that is hypothetical”.

So there is an increasing need for children to be involved in group activities, exploring possibilities and planning how they will be achieved. In Performing Arts, they learn exactly that: teamwork, responsibility, collaboration, and leadership. Research shows activities like music and acting have a positive effect on children’s emotional behaviour and development (Who knew!).

Experts agree teenagers involved in extracurricular activities like sports perform better at school, than those not involved. Arts, however, are more verbal and cognitive than sports. Kids involved in sports work better for their team to perform better, while the arts demand more personal determination and self-evaluation.

Sports teach your child good teamwork/competitive spirit and physical strength, arts teach empathy and compassion. Together they teach:

• Confidence
• Self Discipline
• Self Reliance
• Poise

But, you would be blown away to know some additional benefits of arts over sports:

•  Analysis
• Problem solving
• Reasoning
• Abstract/creative thinking
• Conceptualization
• The ability to organize and prioritize
• The ability to converse with adults (Hurray! Good news for all you parents!)

 Jack Hayes, Athletic Director at Brown University suggests it is important for schools and universities to offer a variety of engaging events and activities for students. “We encourage our student-athletes to go to as many non-athletics events as possible,” Hayes said.

 Your children are as important to us as they are to you. This is why we are passionate about their overall development. AtTwizzle, we run workshops for children aged 5, 10, and 12 years old during half term holidays. They are great fun, keep your children entertained during school holidays, and teach academic skills that help them in college and at work… all whilst having a ball!

 So why wait! Halloween Madness at Chelsea School of Performing Arts is just around the corner. Let your kids learn invaluable life-enhancing skills whilst having a thrilling time this autumn! To know more about our sensationally spooky half term academy, click here