YouTube star encourages students to work hard during visit to his old school in Sheffield

Vikram Singh Barn, otherwise known as ‘Vikkstar123’, was invited to speak at a special rewards assembly for Year 8 students at Silverdale School, held by his favourite physics teacher, Mr Walsh, on Tuesday, December 17.

The 24-year-old, who was a student at the school in Bents Green between 2006 and 2013, spoke to pupils about life as a YouTube personality and encouraged them to pay serious attention to their studies.

The students also received prizes for good attendance and punctuality during the assembly, but were treated to Vikram’s surprise visit as an extra reward.

Speaking to the students he said: “I’m here to motivate you. When I was your age I saw something that I kind of enjoyed. I didn’t even really know it could be a job and I started doing it. But I always had to do my schoolwork as well. That may sound boring but it was something I had to balance with my school work and everything else I was doing.”

Vikram gained 12A* in his GCSE's and as a result was offered a place at University College London to study Natural Sciences.

However he decided to pursue a career in YouTube and declined the offer, instead taking a gap year and focusing on his YouTube channel which now has over five million subscribers.

“Although I didn’t go on to use those it was here learning how to prepare myself, how to organise myself, throughout all of my studies, throughout my A-levels that I did here, that allowed me to take that further,” Vikram added.

“That self-discipline was really important. And if any of you maybe don’t want to follow the academic route, even just organising yourself for the exams, learning what you need to do, having that self discipline to set aside time, to really focus on your studies, will help you.”

Silverdale headteacher Sarah Sims said news of Vikram’s arrival at the school excited other year groups, with many students eager to catch a glimpse of him.

She said: “It really was a great reward for our Year 8 students. Our thanks go to Mr Walsh for organising it. It was great to hear how successful Vikram’s been, but also how he valued his time with us, learning skills that have helped him in his career. I’m sure he will continue to do great things and to be an inspirational ambassador for our school.”