Founded in 2023, the Studio Awards were the brainchild of Hannah Finnigan, a Dance teacher from the North East of England. Hannah had taught in dance schools around the UK and Italy, helping students grow their skills and knowledge of performing arts and partaking in examinations.
One thing Hannah was asked by her students regularly was "Why can't you be our examiner?". It occurred to Hannah that her students don't enjoy doing their examinations due to several things.
Having to perform in front of an external examiner, who only sees them when they are under extreme pressure on exam day.
The anxiety and stress that students are under when they take these exams.
Dance Studios often run at a loss during exam season!
Hannah then had a good think about what her students would enjoy doing and what they would love to get out of it. The main thoughts are getting an award as they achieve it and not having to show a total stranger their skills and get nervous.
Hannah also wanted to look at these awards from a business point of view, something that (I think we can all agree) dance teachers don't enjoy doing.
In a lot of cases, dance studios run at a loss on exam days, with the price of exams being so high that dance teachers can't add much on to cover their costs, let alone make a profit.
With the Studio Awards Hannah wanted to ensure that the dance teacher would be rewarded too. The cost of Studio Awards is significantly lower than a lot of other examinations and therefore can be run alongside other exams, creating a bonus for dance teachers.
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Ask yourself, how many times do you get asked “why can’t you be our examiner?” or “why are exams so expensive”, or my personal favourite “you must be so rich with all these exam fees coming in as well as our normal class fees”.
We all know that the last one is extremely untrue as our exam fees cover the payment that goes to the regulation you teach, plus a minimal fee to cover your overheads for exam day. But what about all of the time you put in doing the admin for your exam day, the endless nights of inputting your exam entries into which ever system you use and then running your actual exam session on the day? Are you actually making money on these exams or doing what I do and just run the exams for your students to progress as they deserve to?
Teachers can set their own fees to the students. They will pay a specific fee per achievement (dependant on subscription level) but then teachers can add whatever fee they need to on top to cover their own costs. Teachers will not have to run specific exam sessions (unless they want to) as these achievements can be done during normal class times. Extra income with normal working hours and less admin. All that teachers will have to submit to the head office is the amount of achievements and at which level. No names/DOB/Addresses etc.
Less admin for teachers is always a plus!
These can be run as frequently as a teacher wants. Meaning there is no extra fees for running a small session or running 3 sessions in one month (for example). There is no booking fees and no minimum number of entrants for the Studio Awards. As long as a teacher is assessing the students competently these awards are the perfect addition to your dance school, giving the students a sense of prowess whilst moving up through the levels.
Each level of criteria will have certain steps/sequences/moves that the students must learn and be able to perform, this will give the teachers an extra aim and goal for their classes.
We love hearing from new dance and drama schools about becoming part of the Studio Awards family! Drop us a message and we'll get back to you ASAP with all the information on how to become a registered Studio Awards school.