2dancersmum

Bless - its always hard getting a 'no' I agree with spanner that I like to call them a 'not yet'. Don't despair about being in a rural location at a very small school. Ultimately it is about the quality of training your DD receives and at age 9 about her enjoyment of dancing. An associate scheme is a bonus but numbers are limited for each years intake and a lot can happen in a year. My DD is also at a small rural school. She has never done an associate scheme as she is more the queen of the 'waiting list'. She did not want to apply for vocational school at 11 but has successfully applied to start in the 6th form in September. Her teacher always had confidence in her and she would not be about to start on the next exciting stage of her dancing journey if she had listened to those 'no's'.

I tend to agree with Jane. I remember looking at this at least a year ago after seeing mention on the old ballet.co site. I think the idea itself is somewhat flawed. For it to work you need enough people to subscribe and donate and I think very few people would be willing to donate on the possibility that their child might one day benefit, especially without a proven track record and I doubt that many of us actually plan that far ahead.

The course is held at the theatre. The tail end of the high street with the bus station are just accross the road(and the indoor market). There are numerous shops, cafes etc within 5 mins walk aswell as the likes of Greggs and Subway. I think one of them is a small Tesco. Her accommodation is in a different direction and closer to the other end of the high street and I am sure there will be food shops close by. Newport centre is not very big and everything is quite close. Failing all that if you are approaching from the motorway there is a large Sainsburys a few minutes drive before you reach the theatre where you could stock up.

Once your payment and medical/permission forms have been received you are sent a letter of what you will need, directions, time and date of final performance etc. There is not a lot to it to be honest. Costuming costs are mentioned as an extra but last year this was just a coloured leotard and the dancers could choose their colour according to what they already had. They don't specify any leotard styles etc and there was a lot of variety but if your DD has not done pas-de-deux work before make sure she has one that fits well as they do 'move' with partner work. One of my DDs is also on course 4 and really looking forward to it - oh and there is a small ballet shop upstairs in the indoor market just a few minutes walk from the theatre. Don't know how much stock they carry but we used it last year for tights after a minor mishap!

Well done to Heather. So pleased for both of you. Will she get a long break at home with you over the summer?

Matalan do them in childrens sizes, usually multi packs (6/8 pairs) where half the pairs are black and the other half either white or a bright colour. They are high-leg so they are good for under leotards too.

I'm pretty sure they had closing dates for Elmhurst last year too as I know we didn't receive any info about the audition day until after the closing date for the 1st audition and then it came by email when all other schools DD applied to sent details by post. In terms of an audition Elmhurst had more hopefuls per class than any where else she auditioned.

I don't think there is any hurry for the applications. My DD applied for 6th form entry this year and the big schools released dates over a period of time - most after September. We chose to send off Elmhurst and Hammond quite early as we wished to stagger audition dates (and paying for them) and it did mean that she was in the 1st audition at both these schools. I think we sent them off mid-July but I don't think anything is processed until the schools are settled into the new term in September. Re the taster day - go for it if you can. My DD did the 6th form equivalent and loved the experience. Hammond became her firm favourite amongst the schools and she is delighted to be starting there in September.

At my DD's school they go straight to Adv 1 but they do learn some of the adv foundation exercises as the teacher feels that some of the exercises are best learned that way. I think the lack of adv foundation is probably more of a timetabling/numbers issue than anything else though. My DD has recently started at a new school for her advanced classes and there too they skip the advanced foundation. It seems to be a smooth transition from intermediate to advanced 1.

My DD was not ready to go away to vocational school at 11 either, simply because of the boarding aspect. This year she decided she wanted to apply for 6th form at vocational school and part of it was certainly that we struggle to get her enough quality training and she did not know if she would ever be able to compete with other applicants at 18. We live in a very small rural village and DD is not yet 16. She auditioned at 5 schools. Two schools she ruled out for herself as she felt she was not ready for the 'accommodation aspect' and would not therefore get the most from the course. There was only one school where she felt completely at home and she was delighted to be offered a place. After a very very long wait she was finally offered funding and so in September she will be taking up her place. Has not going to vocational school at 11 lessened her chances of becoming a professional dancer? Only time will tell but for now for my DD she is on the journey and living her dream. She was not ready at 11 but she is now ready to make the most of the opportunity she has.

Aswell as the library there is an online charity search. I think I accessed it from the Educational Trusts Forum. You answer as many questions as you can (as your dd) and it will narrow down a list of charities that she may be eligible for. From what I have been told the library does have the most comprehensive sources, however.

so pleased for you both - that was quite some wait. Congratulations. I bet September can't come quickly enough for your DD now.

I probably would not of thought of ballet but a friend's little girl wanted to try it and wanted someone to go with. My elder DD was just turned 3 and was hooked from the very 1st class. This was just ballet classes at the leisure centre, not a ballet school and she moved to the ballet school just before her 4th birthday. My younger DDs 1st ballet class was at the ballet school and I will never forget it. She was 3 1/2 (normal entry is 4) and several of her older friends from nursery were in the ballet class so I told her to stick with them and do whatever they did. Big mistake as that particular week two of them started crying so my DD copied them and was brought out of the ballet class by the teacher. She was so cross with me for that but luckily the teacher laughed when she realised that my DD thought the tears had been part of the class and she was allowed back in the following week. Neither of my DDs have ever looked back.

Poor thing - wishing him all the best for a speedy recovery!

My first piece of advice would be to ignore all the comments. You, your dh know your daughter best and will always have her best interests at heart, so remember that first and foremost. My DD is a year older than yours and we have had the same comments over the years (especially the last 2) but now she atually has a place at vocational school for september the comments have all stopped and parents/inlaws/friends are so proud of her. I would however say to keep a close eye on your DD and the amount she does as year 11 is way more stressful for the academic side alone. And then you have the added pressure of auditions (and extra time off school and extra time to catch up work missed). My DD actually had less classes each week between October and March and has been missing some very relucatantly because of GCSE exams but I think she would have burned herself out otherwise.

I agree that getting them checked is always a good idea but the squeaking might not be a problem. My DD and several of her friends have found that Bloch shoes are often sqeaky at some point in their life. Not every pair and not all the time. I've no idea why.

Just an update on this topic as we have been looking at claiming housing benefit whilst DD is in rented accommodation doing A levels and the diploma (on the basis that under 25s in further education are eligible). We have been told that DD is not entitled to housing benefit because the diploma is counted as 'advanced or higher education.' When we queried this we were sent a copy of a report from a tribunal (2010) from somebody at Bird College doing the Diploma in Musical Theatre, where housing benefit was refused as they ruled that it was indeed 'higher education' because it was higher than A levels and a 3 year course (like degrees not A levels). The ruling also declared that legally they believed that child benefit would not be allowed either. It did state that HMRC was a separate department and would make their own decisions but that legally students in further education were entitled to child benefit and not those in higher or advanced. So for child benefit we just have to wait and see but unless you are lucky and have a council that chooses to pay housing benefit regardless, it would appear that housing benefit to help offset accommodation costs is no longer an option.

Same ideas came to mind for the wild west/country hoe down. Could you bring in 'stars and stripes' somewhere through costuming perhaps? Or something on the California and beach/surfing theme? Good luck

sorry to hear of your DDs disappointment Belleballerina. I suspect you are right in that it might be down to her growth spurt as my friends DD had similar experience aged 12/13 and then got back in again when her technique was on a par with the older girls her height. I would also reccommend the Yorkshire Assembly (Louise Browne Scholarship Centre). It was my DDs first residential summer school and she loved it so much she went back the following year. We certainly applied late as it was after she was unsuccessful at getting into NYB from the recall days that we started looking at an alternative plan for the summer. Give them a call if you are unsure as they are very friendly.

This happens frequently with our modern dancers going through the modern grades (IDTA) and I know the teacher has to fill in a form asking permission for a child more than 6 months younger than the age set to take the exam. However, to avoid repeating the same exercises week in week out for longer periods the teacher gives them a break from the syllabus and they work towards medals instead. Perhaps the teacher has something in mind?

At Northern Ballet School we were told that students could do A levels if they wished but the school did not reccomend it. All other schools looked at incorporated A levels anyway but I don't think any of them advised taking 3 A levels. Some said it was possible but more than 2 A levels was the exception rather than the rule. As for having a dance degree at 19 but no job and no A levels. My friends son did football and went to a specialist training facility at 16, initally to take A levels alongside. The promised A level courses never materialised and he was injured at 18/19 and unable to finish his course. At that point he started contacting universities to see if anywhere would consider him. He had more than one offer and is now in his final year. They only considered him for subjects where his training was deemed relevant - like sports science but at least he was able to change track. Teaching 'football' was his other obvious option but he did not want to go that route. Moral of the message - it can be possible to change your mind at 19. Its not too late to do something different if the student feels that they will not be able to make a career out of dance.

I would have thought that funded or non funded would have litlte or no correlation to going onto be more successful. There are too many factors to take into account, not the least the fact that the funding goes to those 'thought to have the most potential'. Regardless of the ages of the children their dancing backgrounds will be very different and once at the school with access to good quality daily training some children will improve far more rapidly than others. I'm sure if funding was reassessed on potential etc every year then the recipients would vary also. Add in factors like growth, puberty, injuries, who is prepared to really work hard and even the basic of the child changing their mind about what they want to do or achieve and the picture becomes even more complex. Basically I don't think anything is predicatable.

I was under the impression that the diplomas and their study count as 'further education', hence the reason student loans are not available because student loans are only applicable to higher education. Further education means that you can still get child benefit (unless you fall foul of the new government assessments for it).

RAD for the past few years have run a childrens workshop in Bawtry, South Yorkshire for children up to 11/12. EYB tend to return to venues every 2 years but do add in new venues also. Birmingham Royal ballet have been expanding their venues for workshops but I doubt any new info will appear on their website for a while as their current 'sessions' do not end til end June. Cannot remember which venues they did this year - Manchester way and one north east I think. It really is just a case of keep checking websites.

Congratulations - that was quite a wait on the reserve list wasn't it. Lets hope for some good news for other balletcoers now aswell.