In 2001 Brentside was awarded Visual Arts College status.

This means that as well as the usual provision for all subjects at secondary level, Brentside is considered a "centre of excellence" for Visual Arts and as such has far more funding in this area than other schools.

We aim to achieve very high levels of success with our own students and also to use our expertise and extra funding to raise the profile of Visual Arts throughout the borough. We also lead a programme of training and assistance for the staff and students of other Ealing schools.

As a visual arts college Brentside is expected to achieve an exceptional standard in the field of visual arts and design. Our results in public examinations last year were excellent with some students achieving amongst the highest overall scores nationally. This year we came second in the Saatchi Gallery/Sunday Telegraph Schools Art Prize an international schools award.

Last year we won the London Education Partnerships Awards for excellence in curriculum development and student support in Art and Design sponsored by the University of the Arts. Our partnership with the University now includes many visits, workshops and visiting lectures to Brentside to enable and encourage our students to enter higher education.

We have an ongoing programme of ‘artists and designers in residence' to assist and inspire students with their work. We continually have visitors, many of whom have international reputations in visual arts and design, to share their experiences with us.

Students regularly complete workshops and study days at the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Britain, the Tate Modern, the Hayward Gallery, the British Film Institute .Our arts college partners include the Royal Albert Hall, Pm Gallery, the Hayward Gallery and the Photographers Gallery and the Lyric Theatre.

We are now partners with four European visual arts colleges and through funding by the British and European Councils we complete joint projects in the sixth form, mount exhibitions and make visits to each others' schools

We also have a partnership with Ferences Gimnazium in Budapest with whom our Key Stage 3 students take in joint projects exhibitions and visits.

All of these areas are staffed by highly qualified teachers and technicians. We have new purpose-built art and design areas including a ceramics studio, 3D Design workshop with the latest cad/cam facilities, two multi-media suites with ‘state of the art' Apple Mac computers.

We run a full range of out of school, weekend and holiday classes, including those for the gifted and talented, which, of course, are free to all Brentside students.

Each year a number of students from Brentside go on to take up places at prestigious universities and art colleges. Many then go on to work in the world of visual arts and design at such places as film studios, advertising agencies, the BBC, or are professional fine artists in their own right.