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Frost

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  1. What a great thread! I was just shopping for my first parcel to send this afternoon, and obviously I am not the only one:-) I have the "luxury" of living overseas from dd, so I will send some of her favourite food from home plus of course chocolate. A magazine was a great idea. I think I will add dvd, as my dd is at Ballet West were internet is around stone age speed, so alternatives to Netflix is nice. However, I think any sign of life from home is appreciated, so even the local newspaper can be a treat when living away as far as I can remember from back in the, well, stone age :-)
  2. Hello balletbean The first years at ballet west are given the possibility to do at least English highers exams through Oban High. I don't know if they can take more subjects too, I know one of the first years parents was looking into that. My dd started ballet west this year, but she finished her highers this year, so I have not personally looked into this. What week of summer school did your dd do? Mine did week 1 :-)
  3. I am also dropping Dd off at her Ballet West accommodation today. It is her first year, and all very exciting! She is my first child moving out, so not sure what to expect. Fortunately there are 3 more at home, so I will be kept busy, and hopefully will not feel overwhelmingly sad without her. She certainly seems very happy, and I am also very happy for her getting to pursue her dream! The first year students at Ballet West were given an exercise programme for summer that they were recommended to do to prepare for vocational school, and it was quite comprehensive! It took Dd 3 hours to go through it all, and she has been working on this if not daily, so at least every week I think. Good luck to all students and parents for a new and exciting school year!
  4. Dd went to the summer school at Ballet west in Taynuilt, Scotland, and she was very happy with her week there. The level was good, some of the full time bachelor students were there as well. The younger students seemed to be very well taken care of, living in the same house as the principal at Ballet West. We as parents were very impressed by the showcase, as the level there was a lot higher than what we are used to from a similar summer school in Norway (used to live there before).
  5. As a Norwegian national and not an EU member I have absolutely no problems on travelling nor working in the EU, and I do not need a visa to work and live in the UK now so I am not very worried about my daughter that are Norwegian and her job opportunities I expect will be depending on her abilities, not her nationality. At the moment the UK not being a part of Schengen makes travels to and from UK more difficult for us than for any other EU country, so I am not sure if this will change much after Brexit. However, the instability this will lead to for the UK itself with Scotland and perhaps NI wanting to leave the UK to remain in the EU I suspect will be of greater worry.
  6. Hello taxi4ballet. The problem mainly arises since Norway is not in the EU (EU citizens get funding from the Scottish loan people), and that Norway does not acknowledge any bachelors from private UK institutions, so it is not an issue with ballet west per se. Therefore I was curious to know whether a bachelor from a private institution for some reason are of lower quality than bachelors from the bigger self-accrediting institutions. The Norwegian QA people say they suspect so, but I cannot see why and how this could be the case - then the entire system would have to be somewhat corrupted, as I thought titles were pretty protected, but maybe I am wrong.
  7. Thank you for your replies. What I really would like to know though, is if anyone has any suspicions that some bachelors really ARE of lower standards than other, or if there only is the reputations of different schools that are different. I will also try other finance options, but what I think really is the case here is whether there are any truth to the allegations of the Norwegian Quality Assurance people. If I could find a good counterargument to bring forward to them I was hoping they would change their mind, and then my daughter would get funding in line with students at approved centres in Norway such as LIPA and LSC etc.
  8. Well, I am glad to hear that Kate_N. This is my definitely my impression as well. I think the Norwegian student funding is just talking nonsense. I have talked to the parents of the other Norwegian Ballet West student about funding, and they are having the same problems as us unfortunately. She, and we, have gotten private scholarships from Norway, but for us it only covers 1/3 of the school fees, so still a lot left to pay, without student loans. It really is strange, they will not even grant her a LOAN, can you imagine!
  9. Hello everyone. I am not sure if anyone knows the answer to this, but it is worth trying: My daughter has been accepted to Ballet West. We live in Scotland know, but as we are Norwegian citizens, we will (probably) not qualify for funding from the Scottish student loans. Hence we tried Norwegian Student Loans. Then trouble began. As Ballet West is neither a recognised nor a listed body, Norway will not fund it. They claimed - which I found quite provocative - that "education is big business in the UK; so a bachelor is not always a bachelor, and that many private schools does not provide sufficient qualities on their bachelors, and that Norwegian Universities often did not accept Bachelors from the UK on this premise" Does any of you know if this is actually true? My impression of the Scottish primary and secondary schools, where my 4 kids go, is that they are excellent, so I find it really hard to believe that there are higher education institutions which are merely doing it for the money. But I might of course be wrong. I guess for dancing schools the main focus is more how well they teach students to dance rather than academic qualifications, but still the Norwegian attitude did make me curious where this notion came from. Does anyone know if any Ballet West students have ever been rejected from studying a master in dance due to it being a private school? Hopefully someone knows something about this.
  10. Any parents of students starting Ballet West in 2016 who want to join a parents Facebook group, please contact me and I will add you to the group.
  11. We can buy them. Maybe you can pm me to arrange? I guess you need them until school finish, and we will not need them until September, so we can work something out:-)
  12. Hello I would like to buy them if she fits them. She wears small usually, and she is 5 ft 6 in.
  13. Dd starting ballet west in September, looking to buy first year leotards if anyone is selling theirs. Size S.
  14. My daughter is also going to ballet west in September, so I sent you a pm Pups_mum!
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