Sylvia Young School

[parent1984]

Can anyone give me some feedback on Sylvia Young School ,please? My daughter is 12 (Y7) and got a place at Tring Park but it's way too expensive, and she is thinking to audition for SY as well.
Anyone's kids not living close by to the school, how do they find travelling there. We are in Herts, abt 30min by train to Euston, so not that far.
How is the school from an academic perspective as well? Any bullying etc? Anyone's child got in with a Scolarship? How hard is it?

Thank you in advance

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

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!

@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.

@TheatreTaxi thank you so much, great details and insght there to consider. X

@parent1984 , feel free to DM me if you have specific questions.

I would have sent my son and daughter there if it weren’t an hour’s drive I’ve heard good things about it though!

Hi there
we are also in Herts and my son attends there . He’s attended since year 7 and doesn’t find the journey too bad at all. We are about half hour away by train to King’s Cross.
we are also now considering for his younger sister to attend . We’ve have a positive experience with the school x

To @Jaynebec
Our DS Year 6, loves LAMDA and acting and performing. He is dyspraxic and is a bit behind his school peers re Maths and English. We will try a holiday club at SYTS, but I'm wondering if there is supportive help for school work if needed should we look at applying for Year 9 or earlier. Any thoughts? Thank you.

Sylvia Young use to be a good vocational school, unfortunately the original founder is too old and their child taken over the management and doesn’t have the same passion. It’s all about the money the past year, new head, uninspired teachers the ones remaining, the good ones left, lots of conduct cards for trivial things, like lost erasers! Or 5 minutes late to class means a detention or children have to ask to take their jacket off etc all very rigid old fashioned high authority views not thought of at a progressive arts school so a lot of kids left to Arts Ed or Brit School, and innocent ones not knowing - joining. The food cheap, you’d expect healthy, yes they push vegetarian to cut costs but replace with loads of.carbs, what about meat and veg? Chicken fillet and salad, rather than loads and loads of pasta! Plain, tomato sauce or pesto, 3 times a week. Kids are starving and lacking nutrients but not allowed to bring packed lunch. There are limited GCSE courses which is fine if teachers were supportive though even if not good or lovin science, you have to do triple. That’s ok, but brings all the really smart ones down and the ones not interested never able to use anyhow. The ethos needs to be reassessed, it’s a drama school, dance mainly, group singing, and group acting. That’s why kids go there. Little individual feedback as to be expected in group teaching, though there should be if wanting to produce the best, point is its vocational musical theatre kids you’re attracting so they shouldn’t force everyone to be academic but support to the individual as what you expect at an independent school which will shortly cost another 20%!!! Once the best vocational school in the U.K., now new management, the quality is plummeting and the numbers likely to follow.

I have no idea how it compares to other vocational schools, or to how it used to be, but I think stage schools have had their day. Many have closed recently and those that survive are very expensive. It's perfectly possible to go to ordinary school and do plenty of dance/drama/singing training out of school (by contrast the local provision for this in most areas gets better and better) and then apply for vocational training at Emil Dale/Arts Ed/Tring etc post 16 - or even just apply for MT degrees at 18. I think the teenage years are hard enough without being full-time in environment that makes you doubt yourself, your talent, your looks, your body shape etc on a regular basis. By all means train with the best out of school, but get a decent set of GCSEs first and then consider vocational training.

General feeling from a friend whose DD went there is that the majority of kids are paying bums on seats for the school to ‘break’ one or two new stars. Most kids don’t have the X factor but it’s only through going that you find out. And pay the fees.

same for arts Ed. The chosen favourite budding protégés get the staring roles again and again. Causes a lot of division.

both DDs we know aren’t interested in drama or anything that way inclined anymore after doing year 7-11.

personally I’d choose normal school, then at 18 do drama school. At least you have focused on your education up to that point and have something of a back up.

both parents agree with the above. They said academically their children would have done better elsewhere.

Agree with this. If you look at the students at GSA, Arts Ed and Mountview degree courses (fairly generally accepted 'top' MT degrees), yes there are a few who have come up through Arts Ed or Tring schools, but many who haven't, and who have worked hard at local dance schools, taken singing lessons,performed locally etc and stayed at their local schools. And when it comes to who works after degree-level training, they are all very talented, but it's often about the look more than anything. If you're very affluent and your child lives to perform it may be a nice way to be educated (if your child is emotionally resilient enough) but I'd say it's far from essential. Save your money and get your child doing NYMT etc instead!

100% agree with the last few posts.

I know a lot of kids at this and other vocational schools. I know children who were turned down by the school's agency but then offered a full fees place a few days later.

Once children get to 13 or 5ft they are pretty much finished for theatre/screen until 16, so not even worth it for the chaperones and being allowed time off school easily. The main work will be educational VO and video none of which makes for the kind of credits that get you places later.

We looked at all of them and decided it was healthier for DC to be in a normal school and access top level training outside (a lot of which the vocational school kids are also doing - so factor that into your sums).

Not least, we wanted DC to have the chance to decide they wanted a different route and not feel they had to stay in this world.

Just wondered if the views on the school are still as above or if anyone has anything else to say in this regard. We are looking at the school for our son to start year 7 next year.

Thanks in advance.

Still wouldn't touch it.

I don’t think they have the top vocational teachers anymore, those that were great left 1-2 years ago due to new management in my opinion. There is one or two good ones left perhaps. In yr 10 there is 3 lots of English lessons/periods in a row so students hate that, particularly if in the style of a boring authoritarian teacher for that lesson. They don’t have the additional break anymore that they was welcomed. The food has less pasta but still lazy cooks it seems, low standard from children’s reports. Apparently not all forced to do 3 unit science now this though the teaching is lacking irrespective from reports from students seems unmotivated. Unfortunately if you want top singing, dance and acting training you’ll get a high level of dance maybe not much else. Pastoral and academic at a loss, again my opinion from observations and feedback. Such a shame. Was an amazing school when Sylvia was running it. Maybe they need to start from scratch and re-evaluate. They don’t do A-levels so finding something where kids have to make new friends is difficult.

Thank you both

I think Sylvia's probably works best for 2 groups of children:

1. Children who work very regularly in professional acting roles, whose parents want to avoid the hassle of fighting for permission from an unsupportive school every time their child needs time off for professional work, and want their child in a school which is (in theory) set up to cater to the academic needs of working children.
2. Children who love performing arts and are unhappy to the point of academic underachievement and/or significant social difficulties in schools where there is minimal PA provision, and have no other access to more suitable schools.

For most children talented in performing arts, a mainstream school with good PA provision will give them broader educational and extracurricular experiences. In my honest opinion, if you're in a position to consider a fee-paying school, a drama or performing arts scholarship (+/- bursary) at a mainstream independent offers better value for money and keeps more doors open for the future than SY.

Worth remembering that vast, vast majority of children with be in "deadzone" from age 13 to (realistically these days) 18.

So the chaperone/time off part will only apply until they are 13 or 4ft 10" whichever comes first, other than for 'educational voice-overs' which are lucrative for the school, but not exactly what most PA kids are excited to be doing - and which adds very little to a career-enhancing cv.

It's tricky to realise just how dead those years are when you are doing a lot of auditions at 10/11/12, but unless you have a superb screen cv, a very unique look and are preferably a boy, hit puberty late and are very teeny, then it really does all slow down massively.

I did not get a notification of these comments @TheatreTaxi and @OhCrumbsWhereNow but just returned to the thread on the off chance :). Your comments were both very helpful to read, thank you.

We definitely fall into point 2, albeit no real problems before year 6, however would fully expect things to get worse socially in the secondary years.

We left it too late to look at other independent schools and will be joining in September. Just hope it was the right decision. I'm not too fussed about the working side of it, just want a happy child and good GCSEs which if there isn't much work for them in years 9-11 hopefully can be achieved.

Thanks again to you both.

You could also consider BRIT for 14+ entry.

I hope it works out for you. But I would perhaps keep some plan B's on ice.

Friend of mine's child (who left after 2 terms) saw the picture of his old year group at the end of Y11 and there were only a tiny handful left of his original classmates as so many had left for other schools.

Yes I have BRIT in the back of my mind to consider for year 10. Thanks again very much.

Hi,
I saw the previous posts on Sylvia Young school.
I have a 14-year-old daughter who has been practicing dance, singing, and acting since the age of six. She is very passionate and attends a school with a flexible schedule while also taking classes at the conservatory and in a musical theatre school.
My husband and I are wondering, since she is one year ahead in school, whether we should send her to spend a year in England in a performing arts school that also offers an academic education.
We had looked into the Sylvia Young Theatre School, but I see that the reviews are rather mixed.
Are there other schools offering high-level artistic programs in singing and musical theatre, along with academic studies, for children aged 14 to 18?

Thank you very much for your feedback.

There is Tring Park which is more academic and has boarding available. It is £££

It depends what you are after.
14-16 is when you do GCSEs in the UK, so it's a very unusual point to join a school especially for a year as that would be disruptive to those in exam years.

It's also an age when there is little to no professional work available due to licensing rules.

Wells Cathedral School is not a performing arts school, but they are one of four specialist music schools in England and offer proper academic studies alongside music programmes. Their choristers are amazing and I guess vocal studies must be strong further down the line when the voices change.

They do MT shows and have a small dance company but I don't know how strong they are on drama. Tring Park is better for dance.