glowlight

Fair enough - and well done you for going into this with your research done and eyes full open with regard to funding. An informed choice of 5 to 6 schools (as you have) is probably a good number to go in for.

It looks as if you have a good selection of suitable courses on your list given your DS's preference for classical ballet. If he will be joining after finishing A levels, I think it is good to consider, not only whether a school is prepared to take a student who is over 18, but also whether there are likely to be other students of the same age there with him. I can imagine if you were the only 18/19 year old amongst a class of 16 year olds it might not be easy. When my dd went to Northern Ballet School (many years ago) there was a broad age range in her year group. As well as a mix of 16 year olds and 18 year olds there were a handful of older students too. Another course to consider might be https://www.rcs.ac.uk/courses/ba-modern-ballet/ I have no personal experience but my dd knew a few people who went there and they seem to produce excellent dancers.

I can't help with your que3ry @ArucariaBallerina, but Congratulations on your contract.

Sometimes it's difficult to separate our own anxieties from our children's. As much as you need to support your dd with things to look forward to in the forthcoming months, I suggest you try to plan things for yourself..things that you might not have been able to do if she was at home. Maybe plan some concert or theatre visits, or sign up for an evening class that you wouldn't have been able to do if you were ferrying dd to dance classes. If you have other children at home plan special things to do with them as they will miss their sister. It will be an adjustment period for all of you.

Whatever your reasons for not wanting your child to go away at 11, you are not being selfish. You have to do what is right for both your dd and the rest of your family. If you really can't afford it, it would be more cruel to let her audition and then have to tell her that she can't go if she was successful in getting a place. If it's a case of you can afford it with funding, and you would be prepared to let her go if she was successful, then you would have to go into the process with the clear understanding that if she didn't get funding she can't go. Even with funding there are a lot of additional expenses....mind you it's not cheap to get good quality dance training if she stays at home. I would suggest you research all the options, all the different vocational schools and all your options for training locally with a good associates scheme and then you will be better armed to make the decision. And I don't think she will resent you if your reasoning is rational, especially if you agree that she can try when she is older if she still wants to.

As others have said, it sounds quite normal that she is anxious and emotional. I mean even moving from primary to high school can make kids really anxious and that's without the added 'unknown' of being away from home. We didn't have to go through this until my dd was 16, so in some ways it was very different, but we still had 'wobbles'. A few suggestions: 1) Start to plan with her some things she can take with her to remind her of home when she is at school. Maybe her favourite duvet cover, some pictures of family and friends, music she likes to listen to. 2) Maybe plan what you are going to do together at Half Term, and at Exeats if you have them 3) Can you reach out to find other kids starting in the same year as her? Maybe if she could chat with others or even meet up that might help 4) As above but older students at the school she is going to. There may be folk on the forum who can help 5) Talk about whether there are any specific things she is worried about - the toothpaste example is a good one, this kind of thing can get blown up out of proportion in the worrier's head. 6) Try to move her away from thinking of it as 'leaving home.' Home will still be home - she is simply going away to boarding school during term time. 7) Make sure she knows that she doesn't have to go. That if she has changed her mind that's OK and you will make it work so she can still do ballet etc (OK - you may not be happy with this one but I think it's important that she knows she still has a choice). Hope this helps a little.

This question has been going round in my head quite a bit, so apologies for changing the subject... With regard to the current Y9 cohort at RBS, if there are only 2 British girls going into Y10 - what happens to all the MDS awards? I presume that the overseas students aren't eligible to receive MDS? So are the unused funds knocking around somewhere?

Here is my view of some of the common routes that ballet students take in the UK. One route for vocational students in the UK is to go to one of the full time vocational schools such as Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst, Hammond, Tring or Moorlands. These take students from the age of 11 and most students board. They are fee-paying schools but most have some sort of funding support (although I'm not sure how it works if you haven't been domiciled in the UK) Many other ballet students train with excellent local teachers close to their homes until they are 16, often supported by 'Associate' schemes which usually offer weekend classes. I think all of the schools I mentioned above have an associate scheme, and there are others (eg Norther Ballet, Central School of Ballet) These students generally go to an ordinary school for their academic education and have to juggle school, ballet and travel. Some home school but that is the exception rather than the rule. If you go down this route, finding an excellent local ballet teacher is paramount. There is lots of experience on this forum and I'm sure people will be able to give you suggestions if you want to share your location. At the age of 16 most serious ballet students in the UK will be looking to go into full time ballet training. The schools listed above offer training at this level, but there are others - Central School of Ballet, English National Ballet School, Northern Ballet School, Rambert etc. Some of these give the student the opportunity to continue their academic eduction, but others don't. I hope this helps. Welcome to the UK.

On the plus side @Millicent - you are going into this with eyes wide open, which is more than many of us have been able to. I would encourage you and your DD to look at a range of different schools when it comes to lower school auditions. RBS is far from being the only option. In anticipation of this could you line up some experience of other schools through summer schools perhaps?

So sad. My heart goes out to all the families affected by this.

@Nastya - please don't worry about your feet. As others have said, they are not particularly small for your height, and really people have successful ballet careers with all sorts of shapes and sizes of feet. Also - there is really no point in worrying about something you cannot change. This quote is attributed to the Dalai Lama: 'If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.' I know it is easier said than done!

Congratulations to your daughter @Jing. This is a great achievement to be savoured and enjoyed. As others have said, I would treat this as a wonderful experience and opportunity for now, and worry about her career further down the line. If she does want to become a professional ballet dancer when she grows up, then she/you might consider applying for vocational schools in year 7. In many ways this is the most 'traditional' route for aspiring dancers, but by no means the only route. Most children at vocational schools board, and even with a funded place it is expensive. You are not alone in feeling this is a big step and commitment at a young age, and it doesn't come with any guarantees that your child will have a career in dance at the end of it. The other main alternative is to go to vocational school at 16. This means you can have your child at home during those formative teenage years. The problem here is keeping up a high enough level of training but it can be done. This is where associate schemes can really add value, because they give your child the opportunity to train with other students of the same age dancing at the same level, which can be difficult to to get in a local ballet school. If you go down this route expect to spend a lot of time driving to classes at evenings and weekends, and the cost can mount up. There are a few professional ballet dancers who never went to vocational school, but they are few and far between and had access to extraordinary local teachers. My daughter trained locally until she was 16 with the support of good associate schemes. She went to vocational school at 16. During her 3 years at vocational school she realised that the chances of getting regular work as a ballet dancer were low so she broadened her horizons. After graduating she worked for 5 years on cruise ships, until she had enough of travelling. She has since had a complete change in careers and is a web developer. She says she has no regrets about how things worked out. She values the experiences she had during her training and had a great time on ships. She recognises that the training she received as a dancer has set her up well for the world of work. I think if you view JAs as an experience which will help your child to develop as a person it is definitely worth it. It doesn't have to be a lifetime commitment!

KNT dance works has had very good reviews on this forum before, so I wouldn't rule it out based on one negative comment. My dd used to go to their classes sometimes but that was many years ago. I think KNT used to operate out of Northern Ballet School but it looks as if they now use other sites in Manchester.

If there is take up for this, I think it could increase demand for local ballet schools by introducing more children to ballet. If local teachers are smart (and most of you are very astute business people), if a primary school in their area is using the RBS programme they will hook into this as a way to promote the benefit (necessity) of in person training for ballet.

I sometimes think that things happen for a reason. I hope things settle down soon in your crazy house and that all of your loved ones stay safe.

@No Pink Tutus - I can see you have posted on many threads asking about homestays. I can't help personally as I'm not in London but I think it might be useful to know exactly what you are looking for. What age is your DS? What type of arrangement are you looking for? What dates are you looking for? Where? It sounds as if your arrangements have fallen through at short notice so I hope you find something soon.

My dd started her training with @tutugirl many, many years ago. I can't comment on the summer school itself, but I do know that @tutugirl runs fabulous programmes and really cares for the students. Looking at the adverts for this year's faculty I think it will be an amazing summer school - and one which will be equally good for vocational and non-vocational students.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a 'Balletco' ballet company! I think the main problem would be how to fund it so that you could pay the dancers a decent salary - otherwise you are back into the vicious circle of asking dancers to perform for nothing. If you are serious about this I would suggest the first step is to think about how many dancers you would need to make a viable company, and what basis you would want to employ them - maybe half a dozen dancers for a short project (a couple of months) would be a good place to start. Then think about how much it would cost to employ them, and how much you might need to spend on venues, costumes, insurance etc. What do you think you could bring in in ticket sales for the performances? And any other revenue streams (maybe merchandising - not sure what else) Once you have a bit of a budget together then start to look for grant funding to get it started. Or crowd funding? Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs - this is just my initial thoughts on where I would start if I was looking to set up something like this.

Oh I loved Maypole Dancing at primary school - it was the highlight of the spring term.

Now that we are 'back to normal' there is a tendency to feel that we should all feel normal and be able to get on with our lives as we did before. That simply isn't the case. So many of us are still struggling with some things, and the trouble is you don't know what is going to hit you until it does. It sounds as if the examiner was really lovely, so hopefully your dd won't be disappointed in her results. But if she is, try to help her to understand that this was a one off due to very strange circumstances. One result in a long line of results mustn't be allowed to define what comes next. I got completely rubbish A level results due to glandular fever. Fortunately I had a very pro-active Headmaster who spoke personally to the admissions offer at my chosen university to secure my place, and I went on to get a good degree from a good university. My A levels were a blip and mean nothing now.

I think it is unlikely that there won't be any rooms left...New Medlock provides accommodation to all manner of students, and the uni 1st years won't know for certain whether the are going to Manchester until much later in the year. Ideally you want to try to get her into a flat with other NBS students, but I wouldn't worry too much about them all being under 18. It can be a benefit to have some older ones in the flat. When my dd started at 16 she had two 18 year olds, a 19 year old and a 25 year old in her flat - a mix of girls and boys but all NBS first years. It seemed to work well.

I don't know anything about how National Youth Ballet works - but maybe an older girl in the Junior company would be more likely to get a more significant role than if she was one of the youngest in the Senior company. It may not be a bad thing.

Totally irrelevant - but I remember going on a geography field trip to Thamesmead.

Congratulations to your dd on her offers. This must be a very difficult choice to make, and I think she needs to think about what is important to her and use this to inform the decision. My dd went to NBS many years ago. She was very much a ballet girl and was on the classical focus right the way through. I believe she got a very good classical training, with lots of performance experience (A full length ballet each year in December, and pieces in the whole school end of year show each July). During her final year she started to realise how difficult it would be to secure a classical contract. She went to many auditions, but also decided to broaden her outlook. She auditioned for all sorts of different things, and in the end went to work on cruise ships. Looking back she now says she is very happy with the way things turned out, that she has had a much more interesting career than she would have done if she had joined a ballet company. I'm trying to remember what the other classical focus girls in her year did - there were only a handful of them. At least one of them got a classical contract. It is difficult when you look at graduate destinations on school websites to work out whether it is a handful each year who get jobs, or whether every dancer that goes through the school gets work. I think almost everyone in DDs year who wanted to continue to dance secured paid employment in dance of some sort within a year of graduation. But - graduate destinations aren't everything, there are many other things to take into consideration like whether the ethos of the school is a good fit, whether the location and living arrangements work for you. My dd loved living in Manchester, but it wouldn't suit everyone.

This must be so horrible for those who haven't received calls. Don't assume that it means no...maybe they just didn't get through all the list on Saturday. I suspect Central have done this to give themselves an edge..to get their offers in before other offers land. There's also something nice about the personal touch of a phone call I guess, and they want to do everything they can to get the candidates they want ahead of other schools.