ALRA

I studied there. Some great tutors - particularly in voice and TV - but abysmal executive leadership. The teaching was never an issue (most tutors freelanced between leading schools) - however, it was a rudderless, leaderless, joke of an institution. Students were treated as nothing more than income generators. Third year visiting directors were excellent, but the place was run like a project with cliquey long-standing permanent relics from the past clinging on to their jobs (they would have been unemployable elsewhere). In our third year we challenged the leadership because they made an incorrect decision to expel one student. They didn't like being challenged or "pupil power". There was no independent body to mediate - they were a very old fashioned "what we say goes" led place. The school I graduated from was a shadow of the great vision epitomised by the wonderful Sorrel Carson, who believed in nurturing students through self-discovery. Some of the wasters and chancers involved in the school's slow and steady demise should hang their heads in shame. They know who they are.