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Whiteduvet

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  1. My child was at Tring (she has since left for reasons not to do with the school). They ate very well there in our experience: lots of filling meals and snacks available (and eaten). Sunday brunch for example was a big highlight. One thing we liked about the school which the RBS and Elmhurst lack, is its diversity: the dancers there mingle with children on the acting course and so are used to seeing people with much more varied body sizes and shapes than when only ballet dancers are present.
  2. Very good condition. £40 plus postage from High Wycombe area.
  3. Selling: 3 x shirts 28" (two in very good condition, one in slightly less good condition) - £50 for all 1 x blazer size 6 / 28" - in very good condition £65 2 x skirts 26x20 (waist x length - have elastic to slim waist) - £40 for both Or make me an offer. Can reduce price if you want all of it. PM me if interested. Can be collected from near Amersham or posted at cost.
  4. Yes he knows. As keeps on being mentioned on his thread, a large number of his students have actually mainly been trained elsewhere. My points were surely obvious. You cannot compare boys to girls. You cannot compare experiences of year 7 to year 9. Competition hots up and the sleepover ends. Finally, there are many ways to skin a cat. Find the right school for your child but do your research. So many (JA) parents I met had no idea of the potential difficulties which lie ahead, again, mainly for girls. Hopefully all children are at or manage to find the right school for them.
  5. Good point about the language. I think the experience of a boy in year 7 will be very different to that of a girl in year 9. As a wise teacher once told me, there’s more to life than ballet (yes really). And there’s more to ballet than the Royal Ballet School . Everyone’s choices and judgments for their children will be different. Many schools are available. Choose what is right for you and your family. Listen to other’s experiences, good and bad. Go into it all with your eyes open.
  6. I wouldn’t necessarily see it as a sign of good training in the younger years. In my experience JA’s and to a large extent early year WL and MA’s are mainly about physique.
  7. I feel your concern. My child was like this a few years ago. Having read the experiences on here and based on our experiences of RBS during the JA program (I found information given about progress was covert and unclear) I decided I did not want to trust them with my child. I talked to my child about what I had found out (age appropriately) and shared what I believed were the odds of success of those joining in year 7 (very small). We then decided together it was not a school we would want them to attend. My child is also very academically able and that too played a part in our choice: we think my child would have been bored there academically. You need to listen to your child’s dreams but you also need to be a parent. Ultimately I, as the grown-up, did not trust RBS with my 11 year old. Others will obviously feel differently and I do not mean to criticise in any way but that was our experience and our thought process. Good luck with your personal choice.
  8. So sad. This thread should be required reading for all ballet parents, particularly those of JA’s. The dream is not the reality.
  9. Seconded. My child is there. They are academically naturally very able. They are being pushed and developed academically. We chose Tring since we felt the other schools could not compete with our ‘trinity’ of academics, pastoral and vocational. Tring ticked every box: the others didn’t (some only ticked one).
  10. @Waverleyit’s such a hard choice. But looking at the success rates for the current year 9’s which have been quoted here: Where have the new year 10’s trained? Is the vocational training in years 7-9 fit for purpose and worth the risk if so many are replaced by those who have trained elsewhere? Of course it works for some, but the odds are very much against you (at every school). I appreciate however that these may be theoretical questions based on money and availability to top teaching at home. I wish everyone all the best in their individual decisions.
  11. My child will also be leaving vocational school at the end of this year. Her love of ballet has reduced so much due to “having” to dance daily (her teachers are wonderful: this is a personal character trait!) it makes no sense to keep her there anymore. The pastoral care at her school though has been exceptional and we are grateful we chose her school: when applying we considered pastoral, academics and dance to be equally important and applied accordingly. I do not believe vocational school from 11 is necessary for success. We chose it because personal changes at home meant we could not provide her with quality training and so it was the only option. But I would not do so if there was the right training locally and then only if I was sure I could tip the odds in our favour. The very small proportion of children who join at 11 and make it through (I echo the sentiments above about only around a third of girls progressing through, for example…) represents for me a considerable risk of harm to a child for a very small change of success. We tried to tip that in our favour with our choice of school and I’m very glad we did. Doors have always been open to talk and chat, for example, always. That has been of huge value.
  12. As in: there are many other wonderful career routes open to young people. I don’t mean to minimise the hurt and sadness but I think it’s better to know the truth and make choices accordingly.
  13. It’s kind to say no means not now, but sometimes it does just mean no. That’s not a nice thing to face but it’s the reality. Not everyone is meant to have a stage career. And that’s just fine
  14. But if those international students (trained differently) are chosen over British ones then does it suggest a problem with British training? And if a (any) school doesn’t prioritise its own lower school pupils and style then what is the purpose of the lower school in the first place?
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