Witchford students get best seats in the house at Britain’s Got Talent auditions after tour of Simon Cowell’s Syco HQ

A handful of East Cambridgeshire pupils were lucky enough to visit Simon Cowell’s production company headquarters as part of a school initiative to “identify what makes each student tick” last week.

Students and staff from Witchford Village College headed to London on Friday, January 25, after one of their teachers organised the trip to Syco Entertainment, owned by Britain’s Got Talent judge and TV star Simon Cowell.

Syco is based within the Sony Music UK offices in posh West London. The Sony subsidiary has famous musicians such as One Direction, George Ezra, James Arthur and Labrinth under their management wing.

Eddie Ellsmore, a student on the trip, said: “Throughout the day we were shown around by Abi Doyle, the vice president of international production. She gave us the talk and took us around; she had such a great personality that made the day even better!”

The group of students were shown around the offices and met with different members of staff to learn about their experiences and what it takes to get a job in the media and entertainment industry.

The trip gave pupils with a keen interest in showbiz the chance to get a feel of what they would be doing day-to-day at work. Managers and interns took time out of their day to speak with the youngsters and answer any questions they may have.

As a surprise, Abi gave the students the ‘best seats in the house’ for filming of the Britain’s Got Talent auditions in the auditorium where they got to see how the television show with a live studio audience was produced.

Eddie added: “As someone who has a keen interest in going into the entertainment and media industry when I grow up, I really enjoyed all aspects of the day. The highlight of the trip for me was visiting Syco and hearing the intern’s stories.”

The trip was run as part of Witchford Village Colleges SPARK initiative which aims to identify “what makes each student tick, ignite their love of learning and raise their aspirations”. It was launched last year by new college principal Daniel Baxby.