Hello - I've namechanged for this, but I'm a regular.
I'm hoping to get some advice from those whose children are at Wells Cathedral School as specialist musicians, or who had a look at it as a possibility.
DD2 is 13, and went to a specialist musician day there last week. She's a first study flautist who also plays bassoon and sings, and the two reasons for looking are
a) no music GCSE in school time in her state comp, which means that she's struggling to fit it in as she essentially takes an extra GCSE.
b) lack of musical opportunities at her school, which has suffered from Covid.
c) just seems to require more and more musical input in her day which we can't fit in.
Wells were really enthusiastic, and she's since had an extra online consultation lesson that they offered. and they've already said they want her to do a panel audition.
They also suggested she does look at the other schools, so we are going to look round Chetham's and Purcell. And Wells made it pretty clear that her current set up with music isn't really going to continue working past grade 8 if she wants to do things later - she's at a CAT but not sure she has the right teacher, and it's not a JD, and obviously no school support.
I'm an old cynic, and wondering whether they say all this nice stuff to everyone and then the funding is not forthcoming (the flute teacher was exceptionally nice about her) - especially since I know people this has happened to in the recent past. I understand no funding guarantees but wonder how common this is.
I'm also concerned about how good the academics actually are. The results are better than DD's state comprehensive, but then they should be given they are independent. And she's a top-set, straight 9s kind of a kid, and I wonder whether the teaching might be better at her comp on things like drama, which are also important to her.
I'd love any insights on audition process, whether people are happy with the school and how they deal with kids who also love other things - DD is a decent musical theatre singer, and I don't know whether she'd still get the chance to do productions etc if they are specialists. The team said yes, but I'm not so sure.
Anyhow, any thoughts - via private message or anything else would be so gratefully received. It's obviously a big decision if she gets a place and I also don't want her to get her hopes up if there's likely to be no funding.
Thanks so much for any thoughts.