balletmadmom

I have written to my MP and the Minister of Education just to air my views, knowing that there would be no point, but I just felt that I had too. My gripe is that while the government will fund my eldest son to do a three year Professional Chef Diploma from 16-19 and my second son to take A levels for two years, there is no funding (other than a degree loan at Central or Rambert) for my DD next year. Surely there should be some funding available to them, even if it is in the form of a loan. The new system is just so brutal, earn £69k pay bugger all, earn £70k pay full fees. Just so ridiculous, a sliding scale like Royal for ENB and Elmhurst would make total sense, you have nothing you pay nothing, you are completely loaded you pay full fees, you earn somewhere in the middle, you pay some fees. The MoE had the cheek to say that there are plenty of funded courses for dance at 16 available. Clearly an idiot, who does not know the difference between vocational classical ballet training and a course to get someone on X Factor.

Talking of the shoes. At Royal they seem to like them to have Freed for soft blocks and pointe shoes. However, my daughter much prefers Bloche pointe shoes, which has been fine, but the teacher seemed against them wearing the Gaynor Minden shoes.

My DD is doing ENB summer school, we got the letter last week.

SA1 is the first year of SAs at Royal Ballet School Associates, ie those in year 10. SA2 is the year 11 group. There are about 16 in the class of SA1s and only about 10 in SA2s. I don't know how many of them applied to summer school, I would imagine that a lot of the year 11s would not necessarily do it, as they obviously all have their places sorted for Upper School in September. And actually make that 7 that I know on the prority list for summer school at Upper School, including my daughter. Time to start filling out those other forms!

Oh and it came by letter not email. I would say definitely go to the Yorkshire Seminar, it is supposed to be great. All the White Lodge students go there.

My daughter is an SA1. So far, I know of 6 on 'priority waiting list' for Upper School Summer School!, so don't hold your breath. It does make you wonder how long the waiting list is. I would imagine that there are not many who decide not to take up the place. My daughter did White Lodge summer school 3 times and once got in off the waiting list and got a yes straight away the other times.

Hello just to say... My daughter was a JA and then did not get MAs for year 7, but got SWL for year 8 of MAs. Then... got to the WL final for year 9! Finally got MAs for year 9, then SAs for year 10 and has just got SAs for year 11. So who knows really how they decide. The year she got SWL, a friend's daughter on the SWL got in, when someone left associates for full time vocational school. However, the SWL ends at October half term and then you are back to auditioning in January again.

I think that what Anna and her teachers do is really nuture and bring out the best in the students, as clearly they are already talented. However, the tuition and the performances improves their confidence and technique enormously. I appreciate that some are associates when they join but many are not. The fact that every year Anna gets 2/3/4 students into years 8/910/11 at white lodge is proof of this. Some are students who have never had finals before and yet get one of only 2/3 places available. Also, back to Easter classes. Obviously some schools are back already but the classes are at the new studio (opened by Darcey Bussell in the autumn) and are just near Westfield in Shepherd's Bush. The school number is 020 8743 3856 and the email is westlondondance@aol.com. I think you don't have to book but worth checking.

Actually Anna is running back to school classes at her new studio over Easter. 5.00-6.30 Monday to Friday 15th -19th April. Great value as only £10 a class paid on the day.

Hello I just thought I should let you all know that once again YDA have got four students into White Lodge (and one on the waiting list) for september. Two girls have got Into year 10 (always tricky as the places are so rare after year 7) and a boy and girl into year 7. The year 11s are doing their final auditions as ENB, elmhurst, central etc. but they have already been offered places at northern, millenium and laines, This time next year it will be my daughter doing the upper school auditions! Clearly Anna du Boisson and her fellow teachers have been doing something very right.

I think that regardless of whether you tick the WL box, they do invite your DC to the finals if they want to consider them for full time training. My daughter auditioned for MAs, did not tick the WL box and was invited to finals. She did not get a place for year 9 at WL, but did get MAs (and SAs in time). Often there are only 2/3 places for finals in years 8/9/10 and they seemed to invite about 20 that year for the few places available. I even know a boy who was just invited to the finals at WL from his MA class without actually going through any audition process and was offered a place. Obviously the odds are much better at year 7, as they are filling @ 24 places at both WL and Elmhurst.

Young Dancers Academy and West London School of Dance. YDA is the vocational full time school, WLSD is the evening/Saturday classes. The Associate scheme is YDA, but both schools are headed up by Anna du Boisson.

Just to say "Good Luck" to the potential students, who are auditioning for YDA tomorrow. I cannot believe that it was five years ago, that we were in your position. I have to say, it was a great choice and we are shortly to start the audition process for Upper Schools!!

Just a reply to Spax. Basically the associate letters come out in March and are not dependent on the WL final. When my daughter was invited to the WL final (although she only applied for MAs), the final was in February and the results for the WL final came out about 10 days later. DD was not offered place at WL, but she got MA letter offering a place and is now an SA. When it came to auditioning for SAs, she chose not to audition for WL, but the audition was very low key (a Tuesday evening, one class, two people on the panel and lacked any sense of occasion). We rather wished she had done the joint audition as clearly it was more of an 'event' and for some bizaare reason the joint audition got their results a week before the the SA only results. Hope that helps. DD is at YDA and loves it (we turned down Elmhurst to go there at Year 7 and it has truly been the right decision for us). Some children thrive in a boarding school and my DD definitely would not. Spax back to your previous post, it is very hard to turn down a place at WL, but remember that roughly only half of the LS students get to US after spending 5 years there! For me, I would rather have my daughter home every night and living a normal life, with vocational dancing during the day. WL obviously assess out every February and that can be very traumatic for the student, who have to stay until the summer in the knowledge that they are leaving and WL has become their whole life. As we know some of them come to YDA or go to Tring or Elmhurst after being assessed out. I don't know how old your DS is, but It really is such a hard decision and going to the WL final is very exciting. Of course, many students in the past few years have gone from YDA to WL, so YDA are definitely doing something right.

I understand from my daughter's school physio that full sole shoes make the foot work harder to strengthen it. Soft blocks or full sole ballet shoes are recommended for use in the ballet class at her school, for this reason. However, split soles do make the foot look much nicer and they use them for auditions and performances. The new Bloch Zenith does mold to the foot perfectly.

From past experience, it is approx. 10am-5pm. although my memory is vague, but I remember that it was most of the day.

I believe that do have 11+ now, as clearly not everyone ends up vocationally training after 11. Best to check with them though. Good luck with it. I cannot recommend YDA highly enough.

YDA Associates are on Saturday afternoon 12-3pm and the ballet class is taught by Anna Du Boisson and then the reportoire by another teacher. The scheme is very good and definitely worth audtioning for. It runs alongside the school terms.

So... In year 8 DD auditioned for associates and did not tick WL box, but was invited to final. Chemistry is not studied at YDA, as the school is very small (6-7 in each year group) and therefore they do not have labs. DD is taking GCSEs in English Lit, English Lang, Maths, French, History, Music, Biology and also Trinity. Funding is always in short supply, but it is always worth auditioning.

Well Evie, my DD auditioned for WL, Elmhurst and Tring for Year 7 and was offered Elmhurst (with funding) and Tring (without funding). I have three other children and was loath for DD to board and she was not keen, although the facilities at Elmhurst were very impressive. So, we decided against it. We then had a chat with the teachers that we knew from LCB and Central and decided to go and see Anna Du Boisson and YDA. DD auditioned for YDA and.... she is so happy there, this is her 4th year and is doing very well. DD was an MA at Royal, is now an SA, she got to the WL final without auditioning last year and it was definitely the right decision for us. Of course next year will be the big one!

I just wanted to say congratulations to Young Dancer's Academy graduate Year 11's all of whom achieved full scholarships to vocational colleges and also got 100% GCSE pass rate - 81% A* to B! Brilliant results, when you think what a stressful year it must be for those taken GCSEs at the same time as auditioning. As I mentioned previously, they have just started at:- Royal Ballet Upper School, with two going to ENB, one to Central, one to Elmhurst and one to Millenium. Not to mention the two students that were taken into White Lodge this year and three last year! They should be very proud. My DD is so happy there and it was obviously the right decision to turn down Elmhurst for Year 7 to go to YDA.

Hello, SA1 class is 12.15 - 2.45pm and it crosses over with SA2 class which is 2.30 - 5.15 (I guess), as they do 15 minutes of strengthening exercises together. Hope this helps. Maxine

London Children's Ballet is a truly great experience and I would wholly recommend it. My daughters have both done it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Clearly it is a huge committment, every Sunday has to be kept free from January - April, but well worth it. The auditions are in October, finals in November and casting in December usually. LCB gives everyone who has talent an opportunity to dance on the West End stage and the experience is almost free, as they are a charity. There is a nominal charge for shoes, etc. of £75 approx. There are generally 600 children auditioning for 50 parts and the competition is high, but it gives the children an opportunity to work with choreographers from Royal Ballet, etc. Not only do the children enjoy it, but the parents become part of the whole experience, working back stage, chaperoning, etc. For us, it changed everything. My 9 year old got into Jane Eyre and we had no idea she was that good. From there we found out about JAs, our local ballet school would never had told us anything about it. My DD then got into JAs, auditioned successfully for Elmhurst, turned it down to go to YDA, got an MA place and is now an SA. Without LCB we would have carried on in the local church hall twice a week. Also, I should point out that lots of dancers from LCB have gone on to White Lodge and other vocational schools. It is incredibly well run, the staff are wonderful and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I just wanted to say, which relates to the very first post in this thread, that YDA also had an 'outstanding' OFSTED.

Just to say that it is fantastic to see YDA mentioned in the top four, as they deserve to be. Surely the upper schools that the students graduate to are the true reflection of the training. Of the students graduating from YDA this year, one is going to RBS, one to ENB, one to Elmhurst, one to Central and one to Millenium. Another student has also been offered Elmhurst and Rambert. Alongside this, students are once again being recruited into White Lodge from YDA, as was also the case last year. These are fantastic results from a school that has under 30 pupils! My daughter was offered Elmhurst and Tring for year 7 and I can honestly say that going to YDA was absolutely the right decision. My DD is truly happy there, lives at home and is an SA at RBS and got to the White Lodge final last year even though she only auditioned for Associates. P.S. a comment which relates to another thread - YDA also had an 'outstanding' OFSTED.