Jack Philpott’s journey: From meeting the King to learning with King’s InterHigh

For parents of young actors like Oliver! The Musical’s Jack, the question is never whether to support their child’s talent. It’s how to make everything else work alongside it, from schoolwork to friendships. That’s why Jack’s mum turned to home education when mainstream school didn’t fit, but they soon realised they needed something more.

Jack joined our King’s InterHigh community in September last year, and since then, everything’s fallen into place. We sat down with the Year 9 student and his mum, Nicola, to hear all about their journey and why King’s InterHigh made all the difference.

Why theatre and school didn’t mix

For as long as Jack can remember, he’s had a passion for performing arts. His journey began with voice acting for cartoons before he moved into theatre school. Once he landed an agent, his talent had roles rolling in.

First came a year in Matilda and a short run of The Witches at the National Theatre. Then, Jack landed one of his favourite roles to date: the lead in Oliver! The Musical, which soon made it to London’s impressive West End roster! And, most recently, the budding star recorded and performed with Kidz Bop, the well-known children’s pop music brand.

Before his list of projects became so vast, Jack didn’t have much trouble balancing his career with school. In fact, “he adapted really well to the late nights and early mornings at nine years old,” says mum Nicola. “It was amazing.”

But it didn’t take long before the realities of life as a professional actor became more demanding. “Before I started, I didn’t really know what it’d be like,” says Jack. “It was only midway through that I realised how big of a commitment it was.” Soon enough, the shows were flooding in, and as he got older, the gap between his two worlds grew larger. By the time he reached secondary school, he became less keen to talk about his career with his friends; it was such a different life from theirs that he didn’t know where to begin.

The more pressing problem, though, was academic, according to Nicola. “In Year 6, it worked to a point,” she says. Jack attended the same school where she worked as a primary school teacher, so it was easy to pick up any missed work in the evenings or at weekends. “But as soon as he went to a new school,” says Nicola, “it was more challenging.”

Since Jack’s schedule in Year 7 was unpredictable, so was the education he could actually access. If core lessons fell on the wrong days, he’d miss them entirely. Sometimes, Jack says, he’d go to school just for PE and miss out on the fundamentals. “He was mostly getting other subjects that I perceived to be less important,” says his mum, which is why she decided to take matters into her own hands with home education in Year 8.

With the heavier demands of Year 8 approaching, however, homeschooling simply wasn’t something they could sustain. “We were just looking for a little bit more — a stronger curriculum for Key Stage 3, just to ensure that he was getting good coverage of the subjects,” explains Nicola. But despite being a traditional teacher herself, she says, “I fully support other ways of educating children too.” The most important thing was finding a pathway with the right substance and the necessary flexibility, and the answer came in the form of online school.

Learning on Jack’s schedule at King’s InterHigh

After comparing all the online schools out there, Jack and his parents chose King’s InterHigh, and the rest is history.

For the family, one of the biggest benefits of King’s InterHigh has undoubtedly been our flexibility. In mainstream school, if Jack could only make it in for an hour or two, there was no way to catch up on what he missed. Now, the gap is easy to fill.

That’s because all of our live, interactive, teacher-led lessons are recorded and made available to watch at any time, 24/7. With lesson recordings, students can catch up or revisit essential material whenever it suits them. It’s invaluable for a young performer like Jack, eliminating all the stress of balancing rehearsals and auditions with his education.

Between productions, his week now has a clear rhythm. Monday to Thursday, he follows his timetable of live lessons, while Fridays are given over to dance training. After spending the full day working on technique and positioning, developing his skills so he can keep picking up roles, Jack can then catch up on Friday’s lessons after dance, at the weekend, or during quieter moments throughout the week.

Even when auditions come up, the disruption is minimal. He can log off after lunch, go over the lessons that evening when he gets home, and be fully up to speed by the next class. “By the next lesson, I haven’t missed out on anything,” Jack says. “In a ‘normal’ school, you wouldn’t have that. They don’t record the lessons or have a camera where you can see what’s going on.”

Taking on life in the spotlight

The freedom that King’s InterHigh gives Jack helps him keep up with his studies, but it also keeps his career moving forward. And that career has already taken him to some remarkable places.

Of all the shows he’s been part of, his favourite is Oliver!, where he played the title role. The cast and the crew were warm and welcoming, and the experience opened up opportunities he hadn’t had before. “At the beginning I was nervous, and I’ve never stopped being nervous,” Jack admits, “but once I got into the shows, I became a bit more relaxed.”

“He just takes it in his stride,” says Nicola — even during the biggest moments, like meeting King Charles at the Royal Albert Hall! As part of the Royal Variety Performance, Jack was one of just two cast members from Oliver! selected to meet the royal, and his family didn’t know it was confirmed until the very last moment. “Suddenly these massive screens came on,” his mum recalls with a smile, “and there was Jack shaking the King’s hand.”

Better friendships than ever online

Despite all the excitement of life on stage, there’s one part of the experience that Jack found consistently difficult at mainstream school: keeping up with friendships. “Because Jack spent a lot of Year 7 and 8 out of school, he found friendships hard because they move on so quickly,” Nicola explains. “Whenever he was back in school for a week or two, he wouldn’t quite fit back in with the group. He was quite unhappy with that.”

It’s one of the lesser-known costs of a childhood career in the spotlight, but it’s more common than many people would think. Thankfully, it’s something King’s InterHigh has helped to change, and it’s one of the reasons why the family chose our school to begin with. Jack has lots of theatre friends from his previous roles and keeps up with them outside of school; in our community, meanwhile, he gets a consistent school social life that fits around his career.

Classes at King’s InterHigh are fully interactive, and students can collaborate with each other in a variety of ways. Outside of connecting with classmates in his lessons, Jack also had a great time in our Fantasy Football Club, which brought around ten to fifteen students together every Tuesday to talk through their picks, debate the week’s decisions, and compare squads. With over 100 clubs to choose from every year (themed around a wide range of interests), every student can find a social activity they love at King’s InterHigh.

Why Jack loves his lessons with us

Even outside of all the advantages online school brings Jack as a young actor, there are so many more reasons why he loves learning with King’s InterHigh. In particular, he feels supported by his teachers and really enjoys his lessons.

As part of our approach to learning, students first discover new topics and key ideas in Learn lessons before diving deeper with fellow students in Explore lessons, and it’s a model that works perfectly for Jack. “I like that in the Learn lessons, you get an idea of what the subject is,” he explains, “and then in the Explore lessons, it’s more interactive and you work with other people to get a better understanding.”

“I also like having a little bit of ‘chill time’ between lessons,” says Jack. Timetables at King’s InterHigh include breaks throughout the day, which give students plenty of time to step away, relax, and enjoy hobbies or get fresh air. Other highlights for Jack include our Cycle Tests (low-pressure weekly assessments), which help him keep on track with what he’s learning, and the tools we use to allow students to carry out and document science experiments at home for a practical dimension to education.

As Jack gears up for his IGCSEs next year, staying organised has also been simple. “In the Student Hub, we have a to-do list where you can see when homework is due,” he explains, “whereas in traditional school, you just get told ‘bring this in next week.’” If he’s ever unclear on something, Jack says his teachers are always there with support. Plus, the same lesson recordings that give him flexibility around his career also help him get the most out of his studies. If he misses something or needs to go back over it, the recordings and resources are there whenever he needs them.

Since he joined us at the start of this academic year, one subject that’s captured Jack’s heart most is film studies. Beyond learning about filming, lighting, and production technique, he gets to enjoy a hands-on taste of the creative process. During a special Careers Week, Jack got to step into the role of a director, filling out call sheets and getting under the hood of how a production is put together. Rather than just learning skills, he gets the opportunity to use them.

For Jack, it all fits with his true passion for performance. Whatever the next chapter holds, he wants a future where his love for singing, dancing, and acting can come to light.

A happy result for the whole family

For Jack’s mum, meanwhile, the King’s InterHigh experience has been everything she hoped for. “I find the communication really good from the school, including the newsletters and the meetings we get invited to,” she says. She also loves the Parent & Carer Hub, where “we can see his engagement in the lessons, whether he has any outstanding work, and things like that.”

Plus, in her view, learning digitally gives Jack a major advantage for life after school. “That’s the way the world is now, and children need to upskill themselves for their future,” she says. But more than the practicalities, the way Jack’s school journey is shaped around him is what really matters to her.