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RAD grievance procedure


annaliesey

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Don't know any history of your long running issue but just thought this might be an appropriate place to ask the Q if others like me as a mum are disappointed at the RAD exam system whereby candidates merely are scored with no critique & no feedback to either praise good areas nor give advice on where to improve. When exams last between 30-90 mins with generally only up to 4 at a time, surely there is time to actually write pertinent notes which can be invaluable in providing encouragement (might even keep kids dancing rather than giving up after an exam) and also providing constructive criticism - quite possibly reinforcing day to day teaching if same comment is on exam report....I know when I was a kid doing RAD exams we got a line or two for each section plus a general overall comment - I do recall along lines of "your X is lovely now try and work more on Y"

and yes Y was nearly always what the teacher was telling me in almost every class to do more of - smile more usually :-) !! 

When paying over £80 for voc exams I think just a point system is an insult, poor value for money & does not really assist teachers or students. Nor is it useful where one candidate deserved higher than another & this can lead to poor relationships on occassion....esp. when adults get comparing....I'm sure we all know what I'm taking about here!!

I have no experience of other ballet exam bodies but Trinity & LAMDA give a detailed written report as well as scoring for drama & music exams. Yes, candidates are generally examined alone but also for shorter time (sons recent grade 4 drum exam cost £61 and lasted approx. 20 mins.) So, maybe it's time RAD rethink....with so much done solo anyhow, why not see candidates alone (ok - maybe just for 'older' grades) and so examiners can give full attention & thus provide this invaluable feedback which adds value & can help inspire and motivate a dancer  in their further training. They are not GCSE's and yes, dance as an art form is always going to be slightly subjective - again, in this high tech age surely it is really easy to video exams for confidential RAD use should their be a question of discrepancies leading to candidates/ teachers challenging results. 

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It is possible to get an extremely thorough, written report from the RAD if you would like. It does cost another £40 or so as it requires a fair amount of leg work from the exams department, but I did it for two of my candidates last year and was extremely detailed.

 

The RAD exam criteria are published and, I feel, explain the marking system well. It does take a bit of reading on the teachers behalf, but I feel that as a teacher it is my job to know this criteria inside out, so that I can fully prepare the dancers for exams and explain the different sections of the reports once they come through. It is very clear as to which exercises relate to which section of the report, and I can explain to my kids where they lost/gained marks. The trouble with individual comments is that they can be misinterpreted, and can create more confusion. Imagine having a comment that seemed very positive and low marks, or vice versa. Also, RAD exam marks are checked and moderated for any bias and adjusted accordingly (often up, not just down) and if the examiner had put comments on every single report this moderating would take even longer than it does now. As for video-recording examinations, there's no end of red tape here, including consent, safeguarding issues, security of the recordings in storage etc etc etc

 

Anyway - the grievance procedure of which the OP writes is not the same as the examinations complaints/feedback procedure.

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Thank you Dr Dance for your professional insight & yes, all good points well explained! 

Maybe what perhaps I feel children need is regular feedback...those in Voc school & probably associate schemes I am sure get this but I fel that many part time dancers & their parents would greatly benefit from an independent assessment which exam comments could possibly provide. Was not aware of the opportunity to purchase this from RAD for £40 (!!!) - how far back retrospectively can this be requested do you know? 

Very perinent points re: the issues that of course would be raised by filming exams....life is so much more complicated for our children's generation (but far safer & fairer too I am sure!) 

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Personally I have never found an issue with my children just receiving a mark and award for an exam. 

 

My concern would be the longer the examiner has her eyes down on the desk writing the less time that examiner is actually watching my child. Especially when there maybe up to 3 other children in the exam room at the time. Obviously sometimes that can be a good thing.........................

 

I am not too sure where a feedback can offer anymore help than the breakdown marks already do, that are provided by RAD with the exam certificate. 

 

Feedback is very rare Comps/Festivals/Music exams/year end academic exams and GCSE's etc.  After-all, exam times tend to be a complete blur and a child reading a report several months after the event may just go over their heads. Whereby a feedback during or after class on a regular basis from the teacher would be more constructive and something the child can relate to immediately. 

 

I'm sure if you have a good relationship with your child's teacher they would be more than happy to enter into a dialogue with you or provide a written report for your records.  

 

I appreciate I might be in the minority. Exams are a good way to assess their over all progress but when it comes to Vocational School audition process, children are assessed on their performance on the day/s. Exam results are only used for reference purposes only.

 

  

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I completely agree with Dr Dance's post. And yes the reports are extremely detailed and thorough. I dread to think how much the exams would cost if these were provided for every single candidate at a matter of course. In any case the exams are just a snapshot of what the examiner sees on the day, an examiner will not know that a certain candidate has improved enormously,or would not normally forget stuff, or under/ over perform etc. 

The criteria and specifications are on the RAD website exam page for anyone to see.

I do miss the old written comments but in actual fact they were not that helpful especially if you were unsuccessful. The new marking system with numbers is a much more transparent way of seeing strengths and weaknesses. 

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This is all very interesting, and useful, but I don't think it's actually what the OP was hoping to find out.  I hope people who have the information are contacting her by PM, as they may not want to discuss such things on a public forum.

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I'll be seeing my teacher tomorrow who's an RAD consistency examiner (she trains & assesses other examiners) who's been examining many years & I believe on the rare occasion for her own students has had to query a result, in the mean time the official RAD documentation is a bit wordy but explains the process.

 

https://www.rad.org.uk/documents/exam-docs/20150121Complaintsenquiriesaboutresultsandappealspolicy.pdf

 

hope this helps

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2 hours ago, alison said:

This is all very interesting, and useful, but I don't think it's actually what the OP was hoping to find out.  I hope people who have the information are contacting her by PM, as they may not want to discuss such things on a public forum.

Thank you :) 

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This has been very interesting but I should have been clearer, it was grievance regards RAD teachers 

 

I just wonder if anyone has ever heard of any instances where teachers have been suspended from professional membership either with RAD or other professional bodies

 

:) 

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Never heard of anything like that, and I'm sorry to hear things are still difficult.

Don't know whether this might be of any help at all, but after a little bit of online searching, I found a .pdf of their disciplinary rules. Don't know how to do a link, but if you search for 'RAD disciplinary rules and procedures' you will be able to find it.

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https://www.istd.org/news/statement-re-miss-natasha-jones/

 

Pas de quatre - from a quick google I think you are referring to a different case - is it this one.

 

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8400202._Malicious__Croydon_dance_teacher_sentenced_to_two_years_in_prison_for_fraud/

Edited by Picturesinthefirelight
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53 minutes ago, Lisa O`Brien said:

Just read that news article. What a thoroughly nasty piece of work. Although I didn't realise forging a dance examination certificate was such serious thing.

Given that a number of the Dance awarding bodies are now on the same legal footing as Exam Boards and the Vocational Training bodies ( for NVQ stuff etc ) ...  and higher grades / vocational  carry NQF accreditation and UCAS points...

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12 hours ago, Legseleven said:

Good grief Pictures, I hope that if it was only a suspension from examining bodies it was at least a lengthy one? I would have thought that faking exam certificates merited disbarring/expulsion. 

There was a case not that long ago that involved a police investigation. Fake certificates and acquiring money under false pretences as the person concerned advertised as a qualified RAD teacher and charged the students for exams that never actually existed.   Somebody that's rather nifty on the old computer may find the report as it was covered in a video/media format rather than just a written article in a newspaper. Sadly I'm not one of those very good on the old computer thingy. 

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On 5/27/2017 at 10:35, youngatheart said:

Here you go balletbean:

 

https://www.istd.org/news/news-archive/dance-school-in-fraud-prosecution-by-trading-standards/

http://www.bromleytimes.co.uk/news/dance-school-owner-escapes-jail-after-conning-students-out-of-12-000-1-45816587

http://www.bromley-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=106610&headline=Beckenham theatre school owner Alan Justice prosecuted for fraudulently offering dance qualifications&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016

 

Thank you, there was also another case of teacher offering RAD lessons and exams at a normal dance studio. I think it was featured in a BBC Watchdog episode some time ago. Sadly it does happen. Hopefully these are isolated incidents and not a frequent occurrence.  

 

 

 

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