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annaliesey

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  1. In hindsight I realise now that dd’s exams usually fitted in with school plans ie; when others were doing them, moving up to the next class on a timetable etc when actually that’s probably not the best way to go through them. even with distinctions two different teachers felt she “had room to grow” in grade 7 and 8 and that’s something that really stuck with us. what’s the point of doing exams if there is “still room to grow” or “exciting potential”. It can be the small things or a stubborn correction area that can make such a difference (with dd it was always arms!) and unfortunately these stubborn areas could follow you through all the grades without really being corrected as best as they could be. I think some of the RAD grades are so lovely (7 & 8 especially) so why squish through them. Enjoy them. Try and squeeze every correction out of them could you possibly do a “mock exam” with your teacher by video and then go through the feedback?
  2. you’ll hear lots of myths and legends about what they look for ie; arched feet, small hips, long legs, sway backs etc ... but honestly, you’ll also hear of exceptions watch some classes or promo videos on YouTube or Facebook and then go for some auditions. most places look for potential too so don’t worry about levels or grades
  3. I can’t and won’t name a particular school but I advise anyone with a child going off to vocational school to read the small print buried in the enormous documents that relate to safeguarding one document I have read actually allows for romantic relationships between students and teaching staff (Although it is “discouraged”) provided it is declared via a form so that the school can take steps to avoid abuse of power ie; marking, auditioning for productions, etc
  4. That might be in tomorrow’s email then !!
  5. Couple of things in case anyone interested The school has been taken over by the board of trustees since the principal’s resignation they are still intending to run the HNC, HND and pre-prof course (doesn’t need uni partner). the RAD teachers qualification is taught by RAD not the school Bath Spa Uni are dealing with degree students but unfortunately none of the alternatives are ballet focused so many students are very upset and feel they are being punished for things that are “alleged” at this stage and are losing their degrees prematurely and without justification. the school board of trustees emailed today to say they were still not aware of any police complaints and were not in receipt of any complaints to them directly they reiterated they were seeking a new uni partner
  6. THIS!!! thank you for saying this!! we need to stop uni partners withdrawing like this as it punished the students and not the abusers! This is precisely why people don’t come forward sooner because this will not be forgotten now in future.
  7. I hope that your sister can be honest but I’d set expectations now that it will fall on deaf ears simply because schools that practise this level of favouritism will already have lost students and seemingly don’t care enough to change maybe she can be honest without burning bridges too
  8. I appreciate that was pretty yuk, but at least the Monday night class was open to others? I suppose the flip side of your story is that the dance teacher was trying to show the benefits of the extra class and sell it to others. 😀
  9. I read your rant earlier and it’s such a shame. You could read through RAD code of conduct and see if there is anything in there that makes it worthy of a grievance ie; discrimination, but I doubt it. And nobody wants to feel like they’ve forced a teacher to teach them. And I totally get your point about non-RAD teachers doing the teaching and being put in for exams by RAD teacher. In one case we had a substitute “teacher” who was three years older, in the same grade as dd, then did her exam three months before her (and didn’t even get a great mark! Haha) what a rip off. She didn’t mind (dd) but I did! I negotiated non-profit rate with a local church hall for dd’s dance club. No mirrors and used chairs as barre to start off with. You might find you can access some funding to help initially from sports groups, freeman’s charity, rotary, lottery, church funding as it helps people in the community socialise, stay fit, get involved with the arts etc. maybe a different approach with the RAD via their marketing dept? They are obviously keen to expand their customer base with silver swans so possibly they could help a) find a teacher and b) help find students by doing or helping with advertising c) get a regional manager to help. I think there’s more teachers than show up on the find a teacher search facility as I think it’s a paid extra service. were they all 16 and under that did their intermediate? I honestly think there is enough demand to get enough students to break even. There’s always dancers who want an extra class, or want to get familiar with the next grade up, or who want the benefits of having input from a second teacher. I can’t remember where we advertised for a teacher. I think it was just Facebook and Star now free ad. I got about 15 cv responses and dd interviewed then did a paid trial class. I think the going rate requested was £20 per hour and around £10 per hour for venue. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind paying a bit more than the average class fee to start off but less than private lesson, and word will spread quite quickly. Happy to help via pm if you’d like
  10. Emma northmore at Ballet boost does private coaching for auditions and London venues including pineapple
  11. Viv, it sounds to me as if you would miss your ballet and this teacher too much if you left right now with no alternative class. if it makes you feel any better it also happened to my 15yo daughter 18 months ago when her RAD teacher moved advanced foundation from a regular established weekday evening to a weekend day that clashed with associates. I later had a comment relayed to me that she wanted to give others a chance to “catch up” including some hot favourites. So, I ended up doing an internet search to find the teacher and school she’s with now and she couldn’t be happier. some teachers just have massive egos and are a complete pain about “committment”! Urghh! i think if you can drop the jazz and contemporary and feel better about not being talked about behind your back, and stop doing the favours and literally just go for your adv class whilst this teacher is still there then I’d try that. Stay in your car till the last minute to go in, avoid eye contact with anyone and just get in the class. Haha as an aside, my dd got so fed up with poor teacher organisation she set up her own club, did her own marketing via social media (Instagram and Snapchat!) and before long had enough people to run a class herself (hired a venue, found a teacher and hired her!) her friends were happy to have an additional ballet class alongside their current one. She worked out she only needed 4 or 5 people per class and it wasn’t hard to get it up and running. (She now has two classes running and was up to 12 people including 3 boys who would never dance anywhere else). anyway, Maybe you could do something similar with any like minded friends? Maybe uni students who still want to dance advanced levels? also it might be against the teachers contract terms as restrictive trading clause to teach students elsewhere ie private lessons but it will be ok to be an employer/studio owner! Food for thought
  12. For anyone who wants to keep updated with the outcome of this trial .... https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-50264895 the reason I’m posting this is because various news articles have now named where he was teaching. I’d like this discussion to be allowed to happen so that as parents of dancing children, we consider that DBS and other “safeguarding” measures are usually not worth the paper they are written on, and instead think how we can learn lessons as parents, guardians, chaperones or even as young dancers to alter our behaviour to better safeguard against vulnerability. the thing that resonates with me is how readily parents are to hire someone for private coaching based on their C.V. and then not be present. whenever my dd has had private lessons, I’ve either stayed in the room or just outside the door. Is that just me? it’s never too late to come forward as a victim and we should have healthy conversations about red flags and how best to protect our dc’s and I’m hoping the moderation team won’t close this thread and allow this conversation to take place!
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