Piepie Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Very excited to get an email this morning to say that my daughter has a place on this (she's 13). Any top tips, thoughts from people with previous experience would be really welcome. It seems to be very intense for September (rightly, the performance is in October!!). We will have to take more time off school than it suggests as we are coming from Northamptonshire. Is anyone else travelling a bit for this? Also on the weekends of the rehearsals will it be okay to miss mid-associates or should we bust a gut to do both? I'm really excited about this, I hope it is fun!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Hello piepie, EYB is one of our most discussed subjects, so I have added the EYB "tag" underneath the thread title for you. If you click on the tag, a whole list of previous discussions about EYB will be shown, so you may like to read through them. Hope that helps. :-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverdene Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 My daughter is travelling from Hertfordshire. We asked her school for permission for 3 Fridays off school because we won't get to the rehearsals in Oxford by 1230 otherwise. The school gave permission. It is quite intense. My daughter has done this once previously and they learn a full ballet in 10 rehearsal days. She will also miss 4 Saturdays of ballet lessons at Tring, but we can't do it all, and she will be dancing. They have a class first at each EYB rehearsal which is loosely divided into ability groups, before they learn their dances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Hello Silverdene and welcome to the Forum! I hope your DDs enjoy EYB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ti62 Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 My DD daughter did this two years ago. Had the time of her life. Working alongside professionals was inspiring and what they achieved in relative short time was amazing. She will have fantastic time - enjoy ???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pups_mum Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 My DD did EYB 4 times and found it a very positive experience. It is quite intense as there is quite a lot to learn in a short time, but DD has always found it enjoyable. One thing I would say is that Miss Lewis is quite a stickler about attendance (apart from illness etc of course) as it can be quite disruptive if people are missing/regularly late. Even if your own child can pick things up quickly after missing rehearsals, it can make it difficult for the rest of the group to learn spacing and so on correctly if there are gaps, so the staff do expect pretty much 100% commitment from everyone. Of course some people do manage to fit in associates etc as well, and it would all depend on timings, journey length etc. But if you are in any doubt about your ability to get between the two venues in time, or your DD's ability to cope with the physical demands/tiredness of a hectic schedule, then personally I would be inclined to pick one or the other. We have always had long journeys to EYB and have stayed overnight near the rehearsal venues whenever possible, but obviously that gets expensive! They are long days though, and it does get tiring so it helps if you can minimise travel time on top of that. There are particularly late finishes around the actual performances. there's a technical rehearsal in the theatre the night before the performances that normally runs from about 6-10pm if I recall rightly, then on the first performance day there is a dress rehearsal in the afternoon followed by the first performance in the evening, finishing about 10.30pm. The next day has a matinee and evening performances. Those days are pretty full on and I would strongly recommend staying as near to the theatre as possible if you have a long journey from home. Oh, and buy yourself a few good books or something as there is a lot of hanging around for non local parents! There is always a room provided at the rehearsal venue for parents who have to wait and they are always looking for chaperones for the performances if you are not planning to watch them all, but there is a fair bit of time to fill if you are not able to go home during rehearsals. Sorry, reading that back it all sounds a bit negative, which I didn't intend at all - we have loved the EYB experience! It is tiring (and for parents a bit boring at times) but the end result is worthwhile. My DD has always learned a lot from the daily classes too, and she and I have met some lovely people. Enjoy it! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piepie Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 Thanks for that Pups-mum, not negative, practical. We chose Oxford because granny lives there so I have asked her to take on some of the rehearsals and have my daughter overnight for some of the weekends; will make it a lot easier for us in terms of hanging around! I have emailed school to ask for the time off, hopefully they will be okay with it all x 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesinthefirelight Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) You may need to apply for those days off as part of the performance licence rather than direct to the school. Edited July 20, 2016 by Picturesinthefirelight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piepie Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 Okay, should I email to EYB to ask about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pointetoes Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 We are doing Oxford this year. It's the second time DD has done EYB. Yes it's v intense but a fantastic opportunity. She loved it last time, made some great friends who are also doing Oxford this year so they are all very excited to be back together. Yes Miss Lewis does expect full attendance, we are going to have to miss several other things in order to be at all the rehearsals. I wouldn't advice doing anything before the rehearsals unless absolutely necessary. We felt like we were suffering from jet lag once the rehearsals and performances were over. They need written permission for absence from school to keep your local education authority happy, it proves you are taking them out of school for educational reasons not because you feel like it. It isn't anything to do with performance license, that is a separate thing and only needed if your DC has done 3 or more public performances in the 6 months prior to the production. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesinthefirelight Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Performance licences are needed if time off school isrequired for any rehearsal/performance regardless of the 4 in 6 months rule. This usually (depending on your LA) requires a head teachers letter though they cannot reasonably refuse. I had to get licences for children to take part in a one night only show because the call time was 4pm & several children had to leave school half an hour early to get there. EYB should have all the forms I think. I don't know if they are distributed before or after casting but there is space to fill in any absences required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pointetoes Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 EYB only ask you to get permission from school for half a day, which is the dress rehearsal and first performance( Friday) They organise the performance license for any child who needs it, using the 3 performance in 6 months rule. Any other time of school needed is between you and the school. In the paper work they give you is a form asking if you need a license. I do think they try to timetable everything so the children miss as little school as possible. We are lucky this time because we are only 30 mins away, it wasn't so easy last year when we were 1.5 hrs away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piepie Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 They sent out the forms with the email I got, and one of them was applying for the license. I don't remember a section that talked about any absences required. They said they wanted a letter from the school and gave guidelines on what the letter had to say. I think the only issue is that they only feel you need one half day off school (and that is providing you are within half hour of the venue), and as someone coming from much further away it will be two half days (to get to the friday 4pm rehearsals) and the whole of friday (as we are supposed to be there thursday night, then 12.30 on friday). So I will be asking for much more time from my school. I have sent the school through the timetable as well so that they can see what it is all about and a link to the website. I think I will leave it to them to sort out, and hope that's enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interested Parent Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Worth also noting that EYB rehearsals are most likely in a different venue to the shows. When we did Oxford the rehearsals were in a secondary school in Blackbird Leys, about a couple of miles from the city centre. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) Performance licences are needed if time off school isrequired for any rehearsal/performance regardless of the 4 in 6 months rule. This usually (depending on your LA) requires a head teachers letter though they cannot reasonably refuse. I had to get licences for children to take part in a one night only show because the call time was 4pm & several children had to leave school half an hour early to get there. EYB should have all the forms I think. I don't know if they are distributed before or after casting but there is space to fill in any absences required. DD's done EYB several times and had to have extra time off school for rehearsals over and above the time requested by EYB on their forms, due to having to travel a long way. The school was always happy to accommodate it and we've not needed a performance licence for that element. It went down on the school register as either 'educated offsite', 'approved sporting activity' or 'other authorised absence' - basically whatever they felt like on the day! Edited July 20, 2016 by taxi4ballet 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Picturesinthefirelight Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 I guess that's up to the school then but it would not have been acceptable in the four LA's I've had dealings with over the last 12 years. (So glad I don't have to deal with child licensing any longer as part of my job) It's swings & roundabouts. Many head teachers don't know the laws (which changed around a year ago) so will do that, but others who don't know the law think they have the right to refuse time off for any perfirmances wheras they only actually have the right to give the EWO an opinion. But this is getting off topic. If you can get away with doing that it's much easier (& how I've been tempted myself in the past) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Perhaps there is a difference with how schools treat the situation regarding time off, according to whether they are an academy or not. Piepie, if your dd's associate classes are on Saturday mornings, then she might just be able to manage, as EYB often have their Saturday rehearsals from 2-8pm to accommodate those cast members who are associates. On the other hand, she might find it too much as EYB rehearsals are pretty full-on, and she will be tired, particularly if she is cast in a role on pointe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoglett Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 My DD did EYB 4 times and found it a very positive experience. It is quite intense as there is quite a lot to learn in a short time, but DD has always found it enjoyable. One thing I would say is that Miss Lewis is quite a stickler about attendance (apart from illness etc of course) as it can be quite disruptive if people are missing/regularly late. Even if your own child can pick things up quickly after missing rehearsals, it can make it difficult for the rest of the group to learn spacing and so on correctly if there are gaps, so the staff do expect pretty much 100% commitment from everyone. Of course some people do manage to fit in associates etc as well, and it would all depend on timings, journey length etc. But if you are in any doubt about your ability to get between the two venues in time, or your DD's ability to cope with the physical demands/tiredness of a hectic schedule, then personally I would be inclined to pick one or the other. We have always had long journeys to EYB and have stayed overnight near the rehearsal venues whenever possible, but obviously that gets expensive! They are long days though, and it does get tiring so it helps if you can minimise travel time on top of that. There are particularly late finishes around the actual performances. there's a technical rehearsal in the theatre the night before the performances that normally runs from about 6-10pm if I recall rightly, then on the first performance day there is a dress rehearsal in the afternoon followed by the first performance in the evening, finishing about 10.30pm. The next day has a matinee and evening performances. Those days are pretty full on and I would strongly recommend staying as near to the theatre as possible if you have a long journey from home. Oh, and buy yourself a few good books or something as there is a lot of hanging around for non local parents! There is always a room provided at the rehearsal venue for parents who have to wait and they are always looking for chaperones for the performances if you are not planning to watch them all, but there is a fair bit of time to fill if you are not able to go home during rehearsals. Sorry, reading that back it all sounds a bit negative, which I didn't intend at all - we have loved the EYB experience! It is tiring (and for parents a bit boring at times) but the end result is worthwhile. My DD has always learned a lot from the daily classes too, and she and I have met some lovely people. Enjoy it! Your timings are spot on as my DD is dancing in Nottingham with EYB this weekend. It is quite a commitment, worth noting that EYB put up posters so that parents can put down if they are willing to car share so that might help. My DD had to have a licence as she has performed in the previous six months despite it being in half term and she didn't need any time off school. Suzy at EYB sorts out all the licences. It is a really worthwhile, valuable experience - my DD loved working with the professionals from the dancers to having a 'proper' seamstress! Well done to your DD and enjoy the experience. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tattielashes Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 My 9 year old did Giselle in Preston back in March and loved every minute. The rehearsals are full on and pretty tiring but all the children seem to thrive on it. We are hoping they come back up north in 2017 so she can audition again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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