Chiswick School celebrates outstanding talent with a host of celebrities at Performing Arts Awards

Dolly wins 2026 Chiswick School Artist of the Year

Brian Conley announces Dolly Artist of the Year 

Chiswick School had a host of celebrities presenting their end of year Performing Arts awards on Friday (10 July) – Ant & Dec, Darcey Bussell, Sue Devaney (Debbie Webster in Coronation Street) and Brian Conley (lead roles in West End productions Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Back to the Future and Tom Cotton in EastEnders).

Brian was there in person to present the 2026 Chiswick School Artist of the Year award while the rest presented their awards on video.

Martha, who won last year’s award, introduced Dolly, this year’s winner, saying performing arts was not just about talent, but the values of teamwork, commitment, passion, leadership and confidence. Dolly’s prize is a placement paid for at the Italia Conti summer school.

To get work in showbusiness: “You have to take it very seriously and work hard” – Brian Conley

Brian, who had his own comedy show on London Weekend Television in the 1990s, has had lead roles in eight West End productions and presented eight Royal Variety Performances. Head of Performing Arts at Chiswick School Tommy Robinson asked him if he still got nervous before performing.

“Yes, petrified”, he said. “It doesn’t get any easier as you get older. Doing live Royal Variety shows is the best-known laxative in show business”.

The consolation, he added, was that:

“Making an audience of three and a half thousand people laugh is the best job in the world, but you have to love it. You have to eat, breathe and love it.

He has been in showbusiness for 52 years, he told the audience of Performing Arts students and their parents, having started at stage school at the age of 12 at a time when there were only four in the country.

“I never won an award all the time I was there”, he said, “but I have never stopped working. You have to take it very seriously and work hard.

“You have to have bravado. Just remember nerves keep normal people away from our jobs”.

Praising the Performing Arts staff Mr Robinson and Miss Knight, he told students:

“The support you have here is wonderful”.

Brian Conley

“Don’t be embarrassed. Be embarrassing”

The Performing Arts department at Chiswick School has a motto:

“Don’t be embarrassed. Be embarrassing”.

Miss Knight reiterated: “It’s not about having perfect technique or even knowing the routines, what matters is that you want to do it”.

The 2026 Chiswick School Artist of the Year award was the last award of the night after Mr Robinson and Miss Knight presented 11 awards each for Drama and Dance and eight for Performing Arts overall – dancing, singing and acting, and Laura Ellener had presented her special Head Teacher’s award.

As they stepped up to the red carpet to receive their trophies, student after student endorsed the comments of Samantha Dowden, parent of Dolly in Year 10 and Minnie in Year 7 and hairdresser to multiple shows, that being involved in Performing Arts at Chiswick was about much more than having talent.

It was about being involved in something bigger and making friends across the age ranges from Year 7 to Year 13; it was about kindness and inclusivity; supporting each other and gaining confidence.

Head of Performing Arts at Chiswick School, Tommy Robinson

Tommy Robinson and Georgia Knight praised the dedication and commitment of their students, rewarding them for showing kindness and support for others as much as for their own talent and outstanding performances.

Drama awards

Values (commitment, dedication and friendship) – Charlotte
Key stage 3 Rising Star – Patrick
Key stage 4 / 5 Rising Star – Poppy
Key stage 3 student – Sam
Key stage 4 student – Lucille
Key stage 5 student – Martha
Stand Out Performance – Joe
Key stage 4 / 5 Performance – Alice
Actress of the Year – Minnie
Actor of the Year – Markos
Overall Dramatist of the Year – Romily

Click on the individual photographs to enlarge them.

L to R: Charlotte; Patrick; Poppy

L to R: Sam; Lucille

L to R: Martha; Joe; Alice

L to R: Minnie; Markos; Romily

Presenting the Overall Dramatist of the Year award, Sue Devaney told the audience what makes an actor exceptional is someone who sees everything on set and in rehearsal and connects with everyone else.

Romily was “bright and intelligent, with a real understanding of the profession”, she said.

Sue Devaney

This year’s tally of productions – 36

Chiswick School Performing Arts department has done 46 projects this academic year, producing 36 full productions, among them: Joseph; One for the Road; Dumb Waiter; Kes; Be My Baby; DNA and Seussical, which have won them the Drama and Music in Education Award, and put them amongst the National Youth Monologue regional and national finalists.

Dance shows included: Metamorphosis; To the Movies with Love; Christmas Day at the Workhouse; Gothic and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The school were regional winners in the Glee Club Competition and they have worked with Rambert, The Royal Academy of Dance and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Orla, who won the Dance Excellence award, is now leaving Chiswick School to join the Royal Ballet School.

Head of Dance, Georgia Knight

Dance awards

Values – Alex
Key stage 3 Rising Star – Marie
Key stage 4 / 5 Rising Star – Dolly
Dance Excellence – Orla
Dance Leadership – Miranda
Key stage 3 Dance Inspiration – Hugo
Key stage 3 Dancer – Isa
Key stage 4 / 5 Dancer – Audrey
Key stage 3 Dance Performance – Darcy
Outstanding Performance – Celia
Dancer of the Year – Jacek

Click on the individual photographs to enlarge them.

L to R: Alex; Marie; Dolly

L to R: Orla; Miranda

L to R: Hugo; Isa; Audrey

L to R: Darcy; Celia; Jacek

Presenting the Dancer of the Year award, Darcey Bussell told students dance was one of the best tools to express ourselves. She herself had got “unexplainable joy and power from it”.

The discipline, dedication and focus required were tools that would never leave them, she said, “whatever path you take”.

Darcey Bussell

Performing Arts awards

Key stage 3 Performing Arts student – Tom
Key stage 4 Performing Arts student – Sonny
Key stage 5 Performing Arts student – Esther
Performance of the Year Key stage 3 – Archie
Performance of the Year Key stage 4 – Frida
Performing Arts star – Gaby
Performing Artist of the Year – Julie
2026 Chiswick School Arts Inspiration – Celia

Click on the individual photographs to enlarge them.

L to R: Tom; Sonny; Esther

L to R: Archie; Frida; Gaby

L to R: Julie; Celia

Presenting the award for Performing Artist of the Year, Ant & Dec said Julie had shown: “a brilliant talent across a multitude of areas”.

The multi-award-winning duo, who live in Chiswick, praised her for being:

“a fantastic dancer, a wonderful singer and a really, really good actor”.

Ant McPartlin & Declan Donnelly

Head teacher Laura Ellener then presented her own award, chosen by her “in recognition of a very special young lady.

“They probably don’t think they’re a shining star, but they’re my shining star.

“This student has been at Chiswick School as long as I have”, she said, adding Nevaeh was:

“kind, humble and talented”.

Nevaeh, winner of the Head Teacher’s Special Award, with Laura Ellener

Laura has told staff this week that from September she will be working part time at Chiswick School, sharing the job with Deputy Head Graham McNamara while she works the rest of the week at Smallberry Green Primary School in Isleworth.

She has been drafted in as interim head while they look for a new head teacher to take over.