Academic and boarding

Students smiling in classroom

The Royal Ballet School gives talented dancers the chance to pursue a career in classical ballet, alongside their academic education.

Students train full-time in classical ballet alongside their regular academic studies. Entry is by audition and hard work and dedication is required to progress through the school.

Our students come from across the UK and all over the world and are therefore required to live in boarding houses. Younger pupils live within the grounds of White Lodge, Richmond Park and Upper School students live either in Covent Garden or at our new boarding house in Pimlico.

Learn more about what it’s like to be a student of The Royal Ballet School.

Life at White Lodge

Academic and boarding

Life at Upper School

Academic and boarding

BA (HONS): CLASSICAL BALLET AND DANCE PERFORMANCE

Validated by The University of Roehampton

The Year 14, (Pre-Professional Year): There were 30 entries, of which all 30 were awarded 1st Class Honours.

FOUNDATION DEGREE: CLASSICAL BALLET AND DANCE PERFORMANCE

Validated by The University of Roehampton

The foundation degree is completed by our Year 13 students, (2nd Year). We are delighted to announce that all 20 of our candidates achieved a ‘Distinction’.

EPQ RESULTS

As part of the academic enrichment programme at the Upper School, students may choose to study a range of academic and vocational courses in addition to the degree. One of the options is the Extended Project Qualification, (EPQ). This is organised and supervised by the academic team. The cohort of 2026 was the fourth to enter for this qualification. There were 9 entries.

A* A B C D E U
Total 4 3 2 0 0 0 0
% 44 33 22 0 0 0 0
Cumulative % 44 78 100 100 100 100 100

GCSE RESULTS

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 U
Total 21 41 47 24 32 18 9 2 0 1
% 11 21 24 12 16 9 5 1 0 0
Cumulative % 11 32 56 69 85 94 99 100 100 100

GCSE PASS RATE

2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021^ 2020^
Entries 199 215 198 182 201 233 178
%9-7 56 60 53 39 58 77 74
% 9-4 94 96 96 96 95 100 100

GCSE VALUE ADDED (GL and CEM DATA)*

2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021^ 2020^
Overall Value

Added

+1.40 +1.3 +0.86 +0.47 +0.70 +1.03 +0.99

*The School moved from MidYIS (CEM) to GL Assessment/Fischer Family Trust in 2025. More information on the Value Added measure produced by The Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring can be found at www.cem.org and/or for GL at https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/assessments/products/cat4/.

As a rough guide, the recorded number gives a measure of how well the students have done, on average, against what their ability suggested that they might achieve against students of similar ability nationally. For example, a positive result of 0.5 suggests that, overall, the students scored, on average, 0.5 grades higher in each subject than other students of similar ability, nationally.

In 2025 and 2026, the VA measure placed the school in the top 1% of schools nationally (Source: Fischer Family Trust)

^ Results in 2020 and 2021 were affected by COVID-19. Centre Assessed Grades (2020) and Teacher Assessed Grades (2021) were used.

  Registered address: 46 Floral Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DA

Inspection report, curriculum and school policies

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