Sylvia Young School

@parent1984 , my DS went to Sylvia Young full-time school but left after Year 7. We also know a lot of children who have gone to the school for some or all of their secondary education.

Pupils come from a very wide geographic area - DS had a friend who commuted daily from Reading. The academics were generally good, especially English, maths and science (small class sizes help there), and the school seems to do well by its pupils across the range of its very mixed-ability intake.

Some things to bear in mind, based on our experience:

• There is a very high pupil turnover. When DS looked at the graduation photos of his old year group, only a couple of the pupils that had started in Y7 with him were left.
• Almost every full-time pupil will also be doing extra vocational training outside school. This is partly because they enjoy it and partly because with the best will in the world, the school can't provide enough training to develop every pupil's performance skills to their full potential. For example, SYTS only offers group singing lessons so the serious singers (including MT performers) all have individual singing lessons privately outside school. Dancers will typically also do extra dance classes, dance competitions and festivals etc, at weekends, outside SYTS. The costs of additional extracurricular training on top of school fees are not trivial.
• It isn't always easy for a child to be in an environment where everyone else is also talented at (or even better at) the same things. It takes a very robust sense of self-esteem to thrive in that situation. Some children will be more suited to an "ordinary" school where their performing talents have more of a chance to shine.
• All full-time STYS pupils automatically join the SY agency. This is compulsory even if a child is already represented by a different agency. Belonging to the agency is no guarantee of professional work - some pupils go through their entire school career without booking a job. It's a good agency and often has access to opportunities that other children's agencies don't, but it also handles a of of "routine" work such as educational voiceovers. As a parent you have very little say in the sorts of professional work your child is involved in; even if your child finds voiceover work boring, you can't just turn down a booking because you'd prefer they didn't miss maths that day, for example.
• The school hardly ever put on their own plays or musicals. I suspect this is because rehearsal schedules would be a nightmare to organise around professional auditions and work. However this means that if your child doesn't secure any professional stage or screen work, the school offers very few opportunities in-house to gain performance experience.
• The SYTS holiday courses are a very different experience from the full-time school so I wouldn't necessarily use those to judge whether the school would be a good fit for your DD.

DD has done camps there, great school but no outside space at all, very urban. The academic results at Arts Ed are much better have you looked at that? Just gives more options!

They do weekend and holiday camps, maybe worth checking it out for transport and getting to know the place.