Investigation found an 'overly sexualised environment' in some classes
Arts Educational School on Bath Road
|
Chris Hocking, the Principal of the Arts Educational School in Chiswick, has resigned following the conclusion of an independent investigation into historic misconduct at the school.
After a number of allegations against former and current staff members surfaced the ArtsEd Board of Trustees appointed Rebecca Turk QC to look into the matter.
She concluded that, although there was a high degree of professionalism and dedication among staff at the school, there was an overly sexualised environment within a number of music and dance classes. There were instances in which the behaviour of individual staff members, freelancers and visiting creatives was inappropriate. Terms such as ‘sexy dance’, ‘wear what you dare’ and ‘naked bond’ were often used and caused distress to some students. She also found that some staff members exercised poor judgment in their relationships with students in higher education. There are examples in the report of inappropriate relationships between staff members and students, in clear breach of the School’s policies and code of conduct.
The report also found inconsistencies in how past allegations of misconduct were handled by the School’s leadership, meaning that some incidents were not addressed properly and even quite recently instituted policies and procedures were ignored.
The victims were students aged over 18 and most of the incident occurred during the period 2012-2017 in the School of Musical Theatre.
Mr Hocking was already on a temporary leave of absence and the Board of Trustees decided that the report demonstrated that a change in leadership was required. As a result Mr Hocking resigned from his position ‘in the best interests of the school.’
Mr Hocking said on the publication of the report on Friday (22 October), “I have, after 23 years at ArtsEd, stood down from my position as Principal with effect from today. I wish ArtsEd all success in the future.”
He had formally trained at the Nesta Brooking School of Ballet, studying Cecchetti Ballet and National, and had then performed and choreographed career West End shows including Chicago, Carousel, The King and I, The Rocky Horror Show and much more. He is a fellow of the British and International Federation of Festivals, and has been Chair of all England Dance, and a Head Judge for Dance World Cup.
He began his career in performing arts education in 1992 as Head of Performing Arts at Centro Internazionale De Danza in Cosenza, Italy and was Head of Dance at Mountview Academy of Performing Arts from 1993 to 1999, when he joined ArtsEd as Director of Musical Theatre and Head of Dance becoming Principal in 2017.
The ArtsEd will now begin the search for a new Principal with Dr Julie Spencer, Director of the School of Acting, will continuing as Interim Principal.
A statement issued by Mark Burch, Chair of the Board of Trustees, thanked and praised Rebecca Turk and her team and said that the wrongdoing identified is similar to that which has occurred in a number of other British drama and performing arts schools over the last two years and is part of a wider crisis in the industry. However, he adds that this does not justify or excuse anything that happened at the Arts Ed and that, “Over the last 12 months we have made good progress in changing our culture, processes and procedures, and I am confident that the School of Musical Theatre today is a much more secure and supportive learning environment”.
The statement by Mark Burch continued, “I would also like to thank those who came forward as part of this investigation to tell their story. I hope they agree that Rebecca treated their concerns and complaints with the upmost seriousness.
“The conclusions reached by Rebecca are absolutely clear and we do not intend to soften or equivocate what is in the report. Naturally, it will take all of us some time to digest the full findings and to determine and fully implement every course of action that we need to take.
“It is clear from reading the authoritative conclusions that some of the events that took place within the School of Musical Theatre were wrong and the result of a misguided culture, which was made worse by a failure in leadership.
“What happened should never have happened. Some staff members acted wrongly. The Board of Trustees is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the staff, freelancers and visiting creatives, and on behalf of ArtsEd, I am deeply sorry.”
As part of a range of measures in response to the report, the Board has agreed to set up a new special panel to conduct a review of the School’s existing policies and procedures to ensure they are in line with industry best practice. Once finalised, new and updated policies and procedures will be incorporated into ongoing training programmes across the entire Higher Education institution. This new panel will also review all employment contracts to ensure that they are clearly linked to the updated policies and procedures. This review would extend to the contracts for visiting staff and creatives.
A second panel will instruct an external governance consultant to complete a review of governance practices and processes. Whilst The Board was not the subject of specific recommendations, it was acknowledged that Trustees had lacked information about the culture that existed within the School of Musical Theatre and had not been consistently informed of disciplinary issues.
The School has commenced a review of well-being provision, which involves two senior staff members working with an external expert.
The Board will appoint an independent external adviser next year to review and report back the school’s performance in improving its procedures.
Value Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
October 24, 2021
