Choir School

[Ikje86]

Hello,

My husband and I and our 2 sons will moving to the UK next year after end of school year 2019.

I'm dutch and we living in the Netherlands. I'm sorry if my English is not right! I'm working on my writing :)

Next year my oldest son wil start in Year 4, my other son in Year 2.
The oldest loves singing and last year he started singing with the local boys choir. He loves choir and singing and I think he is verry talent. But he is still in his probitioner time ofcourse!

I really like the English Choral tradition, and I think a choir school would be so nice!

I dont want to send him to a boarding school.

We are thinking to buy a house in the south of UK in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire.

So we have to explore this year, where we want to live andere what is a nice school.

Does somebody have experience with choir schools? And which choir schools are nice and have good education?
We are planning to visit school and nice places to live, we got time :)

If you don't want but boarding, and can afford it then I'd suggest Guildford (and surroundings) with Lanesborough and the possibility of Choral Scholarship at the Cathedral. There is also the back up of Holy Trinity Church Choir if the intensity of the Cathedral one is too much, or you'd prefer something less intense.

This does allow boys to study other instruments and even play sport as well as their singing, which some places will not. Although it is an intense life, they boys do very well. I've known a lot of boy and girl choristers.

The most famous choir schools are St George's Windsor, Kings College Cambridge, Christ Church College Oxford, Magdalen College Oxford, New College Oxford, Pilgrims Winchester, Westminster Abbey, Salisbury cathedral school. Most of these schools require choiristers to board apart from Magdalen and New College in Oxford. Oxfordshire is really pretty, too, so you might want to consider it! There is also the option of being a day student at Christ Church and singing at Worcester College. There are many more options for boys to sing at cathedrals and large churches without attending choir school, though.

Thank you for the information.

I will have a look to Magdalen and New College.

I think Salisbury cathedral school is also a lovely school, and choristers do not have to board.

We are thinking about to send our sons to the British school in The Netherlands in September for 1 year, so they can develop their English and the change to move to the UK and go to school in the UK wouldn't be that big anymore. The school is close to our home.

Anna check the age for voice trials of schools that you are interested in. Many will do this in year 3 or even year 2 (New College school) as they want to start training the boys early for their choir. This site gives a list of schools and information.
www.choirschools.org.uk/school-and-cathedral-list/
Also be wary that some of the schools such as MCS are also academically very selective. In any case the full on chorister schedule does not allow any time to linger over homework so schoolwork may suffer if choristers are not able to keep up with ease.

@ Wincollparent, thankyou for that helpfull information.

But plans changes yesterday!!! My husband got a great offer for work but has to start in the UK in September 2018.

So way wait for another year?

We are planning to go to the UK in a few weeks, to visit some schools, houses, areas. Still in love with Salisbury and the cathedral school, but also want to explore Oxfordshire.

My son will go to year 3 in september, so I think it's a good age to look for choir schools when he is in year 3? Normally they start choir in year 4?
Ofcourse I know there is a chance that he will not be admitted to a choir.

Anna, can I suggest you come and post in our music thread in extra curricular. I think there are posters with current experience of some of the choir schools mentioned.

My DS2 was a chorister, but at a Cathedral without a school attached and much further north than you are looking. It is an amazing opportunity experience for the right child.

Try looking on the choirschools.org.uk website. It has a list of all the affiliated choir schools. The ones in the areas you're interested in are Winchester, Portsmouth, Chichester, Canterbury, Rochester, Guildford, and Reigate (plus others mentioned by previous posters such as Salisbury, Windsor and 3 in Oxford). All those linked schools are independent but the choir schools association has bursaries available and so do many of the individual schools.

Some choir schools are in the state sector, however, eg the one in Bristol if you could venture further west.