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Sorry to start a complete new thread but would love to hear any feedback about either of these colleges - positive or negative!

Wilkes academy has been getting favourable mentions in the industry. All I know is that Stuart Harvey, who teaches on the drama side, is also an associate director for YMT-UK. He directed my son in Macbeth at the Edinburgh fringe last summer and was brilliant.

Hecouldshine wrote:Wilkes academy has been getting favourable mentions in the industry. All I know is that Stuart Harvey, who teaches on the drama side, is also an associate director for YMT-UK. He directed my son in Macbeth at the Edinburgh fringe last summer and was brilliant.

Thanks DD loves drama

Jonathan Wilkes who owns the academy has lots of connections and I know that the students get lots of valuable experiences that they may not get elsewhere . They have halls of residence too which I always think is a plus and students used to be able to claim housing benefit which has got to be a plus if it still applies.

Hi my daughter is in first yr at millennium doing dance course , she is happy there she isn't really an MT student but is having excellent classes for singing . So far we are happy with the teaching she has had industry professionals for classes and she loves the ballet and feels she has improved loads .

I saw Wilkes at Move It - their performances were Outstanding - my DD definitely wants to look around when she is 16.

A mixed but very honest reply from me.

On a personal level I know several people that do not like Jonathan Wilkes who have worked with him in the past. He angered many local dance teachers by trying to poach their best students for his part time academy & had an article published in the local paper with very misleading information implying that everyone else was rip off merchants. However this was quite a few years ago now.

On the other hand my husband who has over the years taught at several leading performing arts colleges such as Bird, LIPA, Mountview, GSA, MADD, Hammond etc was asked to go and do some freelance work at Wilkes Academy. He was very very impressed by what he saw, the students really did seem to be getting top quality training & contacts. And on a personal level he met and had no issue with the man himself.

We spoke to staff from Wilkes last year at Move It and they were absolutely lovely, they couldn't be more helpful and appeared genuinely interested. I haven't heard or seen anything I wasn't impressed by. My daughter has a friend who is going in September and is incredibly excited. The only drawback as far as I can see is that at the end of the 3 years you have a BTEC Extended Diploma rather than a Level 6 Diploma. If you don't ever intend to top the Level 6 up to a degree it's probably not an issue. They definitely seem to get their students working during their time there and I have no doubt they are a College to watch. I expect most people will weigh up whether they can get a good quality BTEC close by to where they live that will take 2 years to complete, as opposed to one where you are paying for tuition fees and mostly likely accommodation, it takes an extra year to complete but you get added extras and work.