Picturesinthefirelight

Hammond don’t allow MA or similar associate schemes either. The reasoning being that the children are already dancing 6 days per week & they need rest & social time. 

That’s fantastic. 

We seriously considered this option for dd but she was awarded a Dada and stayed on in the end. 

Firstly, don’t quite give up hope yet.  There will be a lot of movement between now and the summer. A girl in dd’s year at lower school was offered a Dada from the waiting list the first week of July. There will be some holding multiple offers or waiting for Dada results from elsewhere, when dd auditioned last year the Dada recall at one college wasn’t until mid April. 

With regards to Btec or A levels that’s very dependent on her. I think that A levels gives more options when it comes to higher education and dd loves her A level study but that level of academic study isn’t suited to everyone so for example my ds will be applying to do music Btec. Your problem will be that the standard of dance Btec vary wildly. Where I am in Staffordshire we have two excellent ones run by dance schools that have a great track record in getting students into leading dance colleges on either degree or diploma courses aged 18. Some of these institutions can organise home stay for students out of the area. Those courses run by normal FE colleges however can be very different and of a much lower standard. 

The schools are all inspected for the quality of academic and vocational education but it’s impossible to quantify a league table of which is the best. One could argue that where teachers only have cherry picked students to work with they have an easier time than those who work with students with more impe factions for example. 

Sorry to hear this. 

My dd too loved Loccitane lighter legs but we have been unable to find it for the past couple of years. I’d love to know where Anna’s Dd gets hers from as we’ve been told it’s been discontinued ;or is she using up old supplies)

Movef

Good luck to everyone at Hammond funding recalls today. There is a photo onFacebook. 

I’d have thought that the ones they keep for physio are possibles but they just want to check something out. The definate yes and the definate no they wouldn’t need to. 

27 minutes ago, Jane said:

 

 

We knew auditioning would be difficult but I was shocked at how little support there was from school and the staff. No guidance on best places to audition for each individual dancer’s style and strength. Very little effort to get their graduates seen in the last few years of school. 

Gosh, that’s such a contrast to the general dance & musical theatre colleges where pretty much the entire third year seems to be about getting seen by agents and casting directors. 

She travelled every day by car with her Dad.  Occasionally by train then a taxi from Chester Station to school. Another day student in her year travelled by train from Crewe each day but she was a drama student and they finish at 4/5pm rather than 6pm.  It was sometimes possible to get a lift on the boarders bus (boarding house was 5 mins walk from Chester station).  Some students got a public bus to Warrington Road (by the Toby carvery) and walked from there. 

She did feel quite quite socially isolated at first especially when everyone was talking about the Christmas party and the summer leavers party. What they were wearing etc etc. There were no equivalent events that day students could attend. I think that’s one thing the school has got wrong in terms of including everybody. However she does have an asd so social skills are not her strong point. 

She often used used to get the boarding bus after Saturday morning class and go into town with the boarders. I’d then go and pick her up later. She also boarded during production week. 

My Dd was a day student in lower school although she now stays with a host family for seniors. 

Sorry I really can't think of anywhere.  We had bad service/fitting from a shop in Stockport so I wouldn't go there.

She is very young still.  Saying that 9 weeks is a long time.  I think most local dance schools I know of only close for 5-6 weeks over summer.

My dd used to do a week long general performing arts put a show on in a week summer school, then from the age of 8/9 onwards her dance school also did a dance summer school.  From the age of 11 she started to do a residential dance/ballet summer school.

Not harsh at all.

For every "wunderkinder" as you call it, how many have fallen by the wayside without the educational back up we insist our kids have in the UK. Or have suffered injuries/mental health problems from over-training?

London Studio Centre also do a 1 year Post- Graduate Diploma

https://www.londonstudiocentre.org/courses/one-year-professional-diploma

It does seem to be geared towards performers who have trained elsewhere and less flexible than the Trinity approach from what I can see.

34 minutes ago, Tiaramum said:

This is my worry about taking up a year 7 place, we've also heard rumours that if assessed out of WL there will be little/no chance of getting another vocational school. What happened to just going to one class a week. LOL

 

Wheras I have heard that certain other schools may be interested in building links to visit the school to watch class and speak to children who have been assessed out to discuss their options.

4 hours ago, Pointetoes said:

I have to confess I am thrilled that this was our last Move It. As much as I love watching DD perfom at Move it I am very relieved her next college/ university don’t go to Move it. She finds the whole thing exhausting. Her current college have a stand there and the students take turns in being on the stand over the three days. 

Personally I didn’t think it was as good this year there were some big names missing,  it that’s just my thoughts I know it’s a very popular event. 

We went once and it was fun and dd got the chance to look around the college stands but I felt you didn't really get much from the performances unless you went into a seated one.  To noisy and crowded.  The workshops were fun but a lot of the colleges seemed to have student teachers and they were way too big to get anything out of it.

The college where she ended up at stopped doing Move It several years ago.  It costs an extortionate amount of money to be there or perform (that could be better spent elsewhere in a lot of cases) The one year they did perform it happened to co-incide with their Graduate Agent Showcase so the grads performed in central London on the one day then went onto Move It the next day.

I personally feel that its become less about the training and finding out opportunities in the industry and more about which celebrity workshops can sell the most places.  CDMT conference was a much more productive use of our time and money.

The way most dance schools I know of locally work it is that they start Grade 1 around the age of 6/7 and take roughly 1 exam a year reaching Grade 4 by about the age of 11.  (My daughter's year got behind for various reasons so she only reached Grade 3 at this point.  Then Grades 5/6 are continued with along with vocational grades.   Mind you a lot of dance schools round here do BBO who have a reccomended minimum age of 7 for Grade 1, age 10 for Grade 4 and 12 for Grade 5/Inter Foundation.

At vocational School my daughter did her Intermediate when she was 14 and she is about to take her Advanced 1 (tomorrow) aged 17. (She would have taken it last year but teacher illness and GCSE's got in the way)

When dd started in year 7 there were 12 dancers. One of the smallest year groups for some time. 

In year 10 there was quite an influx and there were about 28 ish dancers. 

It it was quite an exceptional influx. I’ve never known that happen before and was partly due to an unusual number transferring from other schools. 

55 minutes ago, Peanut68 said:

I agree that year group sizes are possibly too large & think it would be better if cerysi lynthe ballet - like the tap - could have some lessons streamed by ability/those actually interested in nallet as a career 

They are streamed in Seniors. Dd is in A Jazz & B ballet so maybe this is something they could look at in Lower School. 

No, I hadn’t forgotten as such but didn’t know exactly when and it wasn’t on the alumni list. (Which seem to be the more recent ones) But yes, he did attend the school.  

There is quite a list of dancers who trained at Hammond Lower School who went on to have classical careers. The ones listed as alumni on their website include 

James Hobley (Scottish Ballet I think) can also be added to the list. 

But going back to the original post. I know that in the past when students have been reliant on funding to be able to attend then they have allowed the deposit to be paid after finals. As recently as last year when  dd was offered a place in Upper School the finals firm asked for a deposit but I didn’t pay it until after the Dada was offered. 

So so if you are interested contact them and explain. 

Not according to the syllabus. But it would be unusual to do more than 1 exam a year. 

Primary - age 5 

Grade 1 - age 6

Inter Foundation/ Intermediate - age 11

https://www.istd.org/about-us/documents/modern-theatre-syllabus-outline/1modern-theatre-syllabus-outline-2016.pdf