Exciting times… I have been longing to write this blog for over two years! As many of you know, Elstree UTC has been on a mission to establish itself as a leading school for the provision of specialist training and education for the creative and cultural arts. We have been working with our partners, and our founding sponsor -Elstree Film Studios - since our inception in 2013 to establish our place as the creative school for the culture industry. In recognition of the growth, expansion and success of Elstree UTC, we are embracing a new operating name and adjustment to our public branding. Elstree UTC is becoming Elstree Screen Arts Academy.

I don’t know if you’re a Marvel Universe fan. I wasn’t but now I am. Initially, I found the movies a little ‘shouty’. But recently I was converted. I have (during lockdown) concluded watching all of them in story order with my kids. They loved Captain Marvel, I really enjoyed Thor Ragnarok and we all fell in love with Groot. I’ve long been an amateur graphic designer and illustrator with a secret dream of writing a graphic novel so I have loved comic books all my life. So why am I starting this blog post by talking about comic book movies?

Well… all great graphic novel characters start with an ‘origin myth’ - so crucial to understanding the unique personality and style of the emerging hero. It strikes me that we have all been working on the EUTC origin myth for the last 7 years. And what a great origin story it has been - we have created a school where young people are confidently themselves (and confidently becoming themselves). We have innovated an engaging and industry relevant curriculum. We have proved to Ofsted that this type of education has undeniable value and very real impact. In addition to great industry experiences for our learners, our public exam results have improved every year for the past 4 years.

We have developed some amazing and credible partnerships including world leading cultural institutions such as Elstree Film and Television Studios (our founding partner sponsor), BBC Studio Works, NBC Universal Productions, Black Magic, MOBO Awards, Life Cast, Royal Opera House, Elstree Screen Heritage and Apples and Snakes. We have seen students move onto some nationally impressive destinations such as apprenticeships at BBC News, MediaCom and the National Theatre and further training at Oxford University, Royal Central School, Central St Martins and RADA. We’ve also seen students directly employed in our specialist industry including at Elstree Film and TV Studios, BBC, Netflix, Warner Bros, Universal Music and LifeCast.

So as we move into a new phase in our development, strengthening our partnership with Danes Academy Trust (National Leader in Education) and forming new partnerships across the Elstree Studios community - including Sky Studios Elstree, the largest studios in the UK due to open next door in 2022, it seems truly time to align our branding with our core purpose:

Elstree Screen Arts Academy- the creative school for the culture industry.

The new branding is a lot clearer and more explicit whilst also very well connected to our current identity. The story behind the branding is lovely.

The original British MGM studios on our site.

Not enough people know about the legacy of this place. There is a reason why our school occupies the corner of Elstree Way and Studio Way. The very soil underneath us was the plot upon which British MGM Elstree Studios was built. Actress Dame Sylvia Syms described the studios on whose foundation we sit as ‘the closest thing to a dream factory in the UK’. How poetically appropriate that we now train the future creative professionals of the culture industry on the very same land where Stanley Kubrick shot and edited 2001: A Space Odyssey. And today, we have developed meaningful and growing partnerships with creative organisations and technical trades and crafts, all specialising in Screen Arts and ‘behind the scenes creative production. It is marvellous to be woven into such an impressive, collaborative, creative story.

In addition to connecting better to our location and cultural arts heritage, we also want to make our educational vision and industry specialism more explicit. The word ‘Academy’ makes our identity as a secondary school and post 16 FE provider clearer and as Elstree Screen Arts Academy, our place within the media, film and cultural arts and production industry is even more apparent.

Obviously, this was not how we had planned to announce and celebrate this milestone of our growth and development. We were planning a brilliant event to coincide with our annual Creative Arts showcase ‘OnExhibition 2020’. However, Lockdown and the slow reopening of schools has disrupted this ambitious plan.

We have launched a refreshed website today. We have postponed our big festival plans for some time next academic year. By then we will be able to announce the opening of our new sports pitch and gardens which have now received planning permission and will be constructed over the summer holiday and autumn term. Truly, some great developments are on their way for ESA Academy including some new industry standard teaching and training facilities. I will continue to blog here with further information about the great opportunities and developments coming to ESA.

In signing off, I would like to say a huge and loving thank you. What a wonderful origin story we have written together. To those students and families who took the leap of faith on this new type of school before many people really knew what a UTC was, you have directly added your contribution to our successful start up and I love you for it. I am so proud to unveil our new look creative school in the coming year as this creative school ‘comes of age’ and we see the new campus take shape and the additional technical spaces open up creative learning and making - for it is in the creative endeavours, cultural learning and brave productions of our students that ESA emerges with educative ‘super powers’… we have long said ‘love learning, make magic’. Let this new creative super power rise.

Elstree UTC comes of age!