THE OXFORD SCHOOL OF DRAMA TRUST

Registered charity 1072770 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

The School offers an education, as well as vocational training to students from a wide range of social and educational backgrounds, through its acting courses.

Objects

1) TO PROMOTE MAINTAIN AND ADVANCE EDUCATION AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING PARTICULARLY FOR THE ARTS AND STUDENTS OF THE ARTS. 2) SUCH OTHER PURPOSES BEING EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE ACCORDING TO THE LAW OF ENGLAND AND WALES AS MAY FROM TIME TO TIME BE DETERMINED.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: West Oxfordshire, South East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity achieved a deficit of £11,771 for the year ended 31 August 2025, resulting in total funds of £1,377,864. The Trustees report free reserves of £782,137, which they consider appropriate against a policy target of approximately £600,000 to cover six months of expenditure. The auditor confirmed that the financial statements give a true and fair view and identified no material uncertainties regarding the charity's ability to continue as a going concern.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Gravita Audit Oxford LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Trading subsidiary: THE OXFORD SCHOOL OF DRAMA LIMITED Companies House 01973452
• Registered company of the charity Companies House 03638842 · Financial health read from its filings

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Edward Hicks — School Principal (source)
• John Ward — Head of Acting (source)
• Kirsty McFarland — Head of Movement (source)
• Gemma Maddock — Head of Voice (source)
• Seamus Allen — Head of Foundation (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• REILLY, Jessica — director, appointed 04/04/2026not on trustee list
• SMITH, Jake Daniel — director, appointed 04/04/2026not on trustee list
• HOWARD, Jo — director, appointed 04/04/2026not on trustee list
• SANGSTER-BULLERS, Olivia — director, appointed 02/09/2024on trustee list
• DUNCAN, Sophie Victoria, Dr — director, appointed 02/09/2024on trustee list
• DANCE, Helen — director, appointed 04/04/2023on trustee list
• STEPHENS, Simon Alexander David — director, appointed 16/03/2021on trustee list
• BRADLEY, Cassie Anne — director, appointed 16/03/2021on trustee list
• BYAM, Ashley — director, appointed 16/03/2021on trustee list
• NEILD, Martin John — director, appointed 16/03/2021on trustee list
• HEBDEN, Karen Louise — secretary, appointed 11/11/2025

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~9.2 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (93% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 0.4% of total income — below the median for charities its size (5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• ANNE MILLMAN
• Ashley Byam
• Cassie Anne Bradley
• Dr Sophie Victoria Duncan
• Francesca Murray-Fuentes
• Graham Upton
• Helen Dance
• Martin Neild
• Olivia Sangster-Bullers
• Simon Stephens

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with OXFORD THEATRE GUILD.

• OXFORD THEATRE GUILD income £71k
• THE BRIDGE THEATRE TRAINING COMPANY income £293k
• THE OXFORD GROUP income £383k
• THE REDDIFORD SCHOOL CHARITABLE TRUST income £3.1m
• WICKHAM THEATRE TRUST income £44k
• OAKWOOD EDUCATION income £596k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.