Eight Year 10 students from The Royal Ballet School performed at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party in May, creating a historic first for the school. Their Majesties The King and Queen hosted the event celebrating the education and skills sector on 14 May 2025.
The Education and Skills Garden Party
Support from the Department for Education enabled this Garden Party, which honoured individuals involved in teaching and training young people across Britain. Seven thousand guests attended, including teachers, students and key figures from the education sector. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson attended the event, which brought together representatives from various educational fields.
The British Army Band Catterick and Band of The Royal Air Force Regiment provided live music alongside the Royal Ballet School student performance. Garden parties have been a tradition since the 1860s, serving as a way for the British monarch to recognise outstanding community members for their contributions.
According to garden party protocol, the palace gates open to invitees at 3 p.m. local time, and the event officially begins an hour later when members of the royal family arrive and the national anthem is played by a military band. Members of the royal family circulate among guests through designated ‘lanes,’ with each taking a different route and random presentations made to ensure everyone has an equal chance of speaking to a royal family member.
Royal Patronage and Artistic Commitment
His Majesty became Patron of The Royal Ballet School in May 2024, exactly one year before this performance. A review of Royal Patronages and charity Presidencies marked his coronation’s first anniversary, leading to this appointment. The Royal Ballet School’s Interim Chairman Anna Birkett described the school as “delighted and greatly honoured” by the continued Royal Patronage, particularly valued ahead of the School’s historic centenary in 2026.
King Charles III is patron of more than 70 arts organisations and has been a lifelong supporter of classical music and the arts. His patronages include the Royal College of Music, the Royal Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Ballet, the Royal Television Society, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Welsh National Opera, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Historical Royal Connection
Queen Elizabeth II first granted Royal patronage to the school in 1956. A Royal Charter that year unified The Royal Ballet School, The Royal Ballet and Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet into a single establishment, with the Queen as Patron and Princess Margaret as President. The Charter secured the essential unity between the two companies and the school, establishing them as a three-fold institution.
Princess Margaret held the presidency until 2002. Charles, then Prince of Wales, assumed this role in 2003 and has since visited on multiple occasions to meet students, observe classes and attend performances. His commitment to arts education stems from his founding of Children & the Arts in 2006, a national charity that helped more than half a million children experience the arts regardless of circumstance or background until 2019.
Previous Royal Performances
Previous royal performances include a 2012 event at Buckingham Palace where students performed for His Majesty. Students also took part in a 2019 special gala at the Royal Opera House celebrating his 70th birthday, featuring the world première of The Cunning Little Vixen with both White Lodge and Upper School students participating.
The 2019 gala marked a significant moment in the relationship between the royal family and the school, with students from both campuses contributing to the celebration of the then-Prince of Wales’s milestone birthday. This precedent of royal performances helped establish the foundation for the 2025 Garden Party invitation.
White Lodge: A Royal Heritage
White Lodge houses the school’s younger students, including the Year 10 performers who appeared at this Garden Party. The Grade I listed Georgian building is a former royal residence and hunting lodge built during the reign of King George II by architect Roger Morris, with construction beginning in 1727 and completion in 1730.
Originally called Stone Lodge, then New Lodge, the building was renamed White Lodge and served various royal purposes before being granted to the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School in 1955 on a permanent basis. The school received its Royal Charter in 1956, becoming The Royal Ballet School.
Notable royal residents included Prince Albert, Duke of York (the future George VI) and the Duchess of York, who honeymooned there in 1923. Queen Mary insisted they make their home at the Lodge, where they remained until 1925. The building’s royal heritage spans three centuries, from George II’s hunting expeditions to its current role as home to future ballet stars.
Foundation and Development programmes at White Lodge prepare students before they progress to Upper School in Covent Garden. The school receives over twenty thousand applications annually, with entry by audition only. As a boarding school, the majority of students live on site, studying classical ballet alongside character dance, contemporary, gymnastics, Irish, Morris and Scottish dancing.
Educational Recognition and Support
Educational recognition through this invitation reflects the school’s standing within Britain’s vocational training sector. The Royal Ballet School is recognised as one of the leading ballet schools in the world, with admission based purely on dancing talent and potential, regardless of academic ability or personal circumstances. Currently, 90% of students rely on financial support to attend the school.
State support has continued since the school gained prominence in classical ballet education. The school receives funding from the Government’s Music and Dance Scheme, though this covers only part of the costs. The institution constantly faces challenges to meet expenses for staging performances, commissioning new choreography, employing guest teachers and organizing overseas tours and exchanges.
The Buckingham Palace Gardens Experience
The garden party took place in the spectacular gardens of Buckingham Palace, described as “an oasis in the city of London, alive with foliage and wildlife that guests may stroll around and explore.” According to event literature, a survey by the London Natural History Society revealed a wealth of flora and fauna, including some quite rare species.
More than 1,000 trees grow in the Buckingham Palace Garden, including 85 different species of oak. The garden features a lake that serves as a nesting site for various water birds, creating a unique natural environment in central London for the 7,000 education sector representatives who attended.
Performance Impact and Career Preparation
Performance opportunities such as this Garden Party prepare students for professional careers requiring presentations to distinguished audiences. Such events mirror conditions graduates encounter when performing for company patrons, government officials and cultural leaders. The Royal Ballet School has produced outstanding dancers and choreographers of international renown for generations, from Dame Margot Fonteyn, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Dame Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope, to a current generation including Matthew Ball, William Bracewell, Lauren Cuthbertson, Francesca Hayward, Yasmine Naghdi, Marcelino Sambé and Christopher Wheeldon.
Royal connections provide both ceremonial recognition and practical support for ongoing educational programmes. This relationship spans decades of the school’s development, from its founding by Dame Ninette de Valois in 1926 as the Academy of Choreographic Art through its evolution into one of the world’s most celebrated centres for classical ballet training.
A Historic Milestone
May’s Garden Party performance allowed students to represent British ballet training on the national stage. Their presence demonstrated the artistic achievements possible through dedicated vocational education, showcasing the success of the school’s eight-year carefully structured dance programme aligned with extensive academic courses.
Recognition from the education sector acknowledges the school’s contribution to Britain’s training programmes. This institutional support reflects broader government commitment to arts education and vocational development, particularly significant as the school approaches its centenary in 2026.
The invitation represents not just recognition of the school’s educational excellence, but acknowledgment of its role in preserving and advancing British cultural heritage through the training of world-class ballet dancers. Over 30,000 people attend royal garden parties annually across different dates, making this education-focused celebration particularly meaningful for the arts community.
As the first Royal Garden Party performance in the school’s 99-year history, this event establishes a new precedent for royal recognition of vocational arts education, highlighting the importance of creative skills within Britain’s educational landscape.
