Picturesinthefirelight

I have a hotmail address but I was affected by the recent IP address problem. 

In the meantime can we help at all - mum of two MT kids (1 amateur, 1 training ) & a husband teaching at an MT/dance college here. 

I came across this document about a year ago and thought get it explained the process very well. There are several stages that are gone through before marks are adjusted, including looking at the examiner involved standardisation report. 

https://media.royalacademyofdance.org/media/2019/01/11124829/20170316informationforteachersonexamsmoderation.pdf

I think the RAD system of moderation is much fairer and more transparent than LAMDA drama exams for example. 

RAD state

“Adjustments are made only where a consistent pattern of over- or under-marking is evident across the whole tour, which cannot reasonably be explained by a drop or increase in standard across all candidates; for example, where all candidates at a certain grade have dropped an average of 10 marks. It is for this reason that the common misconception that moderation means a school gets ‘locked in’ to a certain profile which can never change is wrong. However, moderation does not aim to remove any and all discrepancy of any kind: the examiner’s professional judgement will always remain the basis for results issued.”

so it’s not based on one school alone, but across all schools that particular examiner has examined at during that exam season. 

31 minutes ago, LittleKnowledge said:

Oh I am well aware of the threat of legal action when a school doesn’t like to see negative comments on here. Not the Forums fault but very sad situation when the threat is borne out of fear and control rather than allowing freedom of speech. Of course I am only aware one such situation regarding one particular school, so it may be a bigger issue than I realise. 

There are at least two schools we are not allowed to discuss on here. 

6 hours ago, shygirlsmum said:

I’m looking at year 12 options for my DD, does anyone know if kings qualifies for student funding?  I’m not in a position to self fund and struggling to find any info.

As far as I am aware they operate as a private college and they don’t offer qualifications that are eligible for government funding such as DADA or Student Finance so I would assume the only funding available is internal scholarships (if they offer them). 

52 minutes ago, Pinksocks said:

Can somebody explain to me why there is no mention of ballet West Edinburgh on this forum ?  I was just looking at their website and intrigued to know anyone’s experience of the school. 

Discussion of this school is not allowed on the forum as per this post. 

My son went today and thought it was awful. He isn’t a dancer, he’s a singer and said apart from Taylor Swift it was an insult to musical theatre. He did like Andy Blenkembauer’s choreography (he’s a fan of shows Blenkembauer has done) and spoke about the insanely good tap dancer. (The best thing in the film he said). He appreciated Francesca Howard’s talent too. But the CGI was dreadful and the whole thing was really freaky and weird. 

I guess ill I’ll have to go and judge for myself. Cats has never been a favourite of mine but I was able to appreciate it on stage. 

I think people would be surprised at what also goes on in UK schools too.  Usually isolated incidents but some teachers seem to be mavericks.

Is it ballet exams?  Stage schools often tend not to do much ballet.

When you say stage school it’s not obvious what you mean. Are you talking about a full time vocational school such as Sylvia Young, Italia Conti or Arts Ed (in which case I’d have thought they’d be entered for exams there), an Associate type training scheme such as West End Kids or a Saturday part time school such as Stagecoach or Razzamatazz?

Either way any student who reaches the required standard and pays their exam entry fee is entitled to be entered. 

Of course they should be allowed.  What exams other children are entered for is no concern of mine. It’s not as if entrants are competing against each other. 

OK, I've done a bit of googling & from what I can see the Advanced Diploma in Dance is one of a plethora of TAFE qualifications in Australia that can either count towards university entrance scores or can actually be taken at a university as a 1 year course either instead of or prior to a full degree.

So if she were to come and study in the UK (can't comment on the rest of Europe as that's outside my sphere of knowledge) at age 16 it wouldn't advantage her or disadvantage her to have the qualification.  She would still have to study whatever qualification the school she was accepted to offers.  

In Australia is it a qualification that gains entry to university education?  I'm wondering if it is a bit like our Btec Diploma here in the UK, a vocational qualification that can be studied either instead of, or alongside academic A levels that gives entry to university degree programmes?  If so, and your daughter is planning on applying for European universities then it may be worth checking admissions criteria to see if it accepted.

For those studying to be professional dancers here in the UK qualifications aren't really necessary, they are more often just used as the vehicle for which to get the course funded (for home students).  If your daughter is looking to apply to study in Europe then she will be required to study whatever qualification the school offers as part of their training.  In the UK that may be a Level 6 Trinity Diploma in Dance or a degree or a schools own internal diploma.  It's the training, not the qualification that really matters.  

The time when they do matter is for anyone wanting to go into teaching.

No, other than the fact that men often wear black or white ballet shoes and girls usually wear pink.  Men sometimes need a wider fitting shoe.

One of dd’s Teachers who had previously been at Australian Ballet implemented this when she was in Year 9. (Except I thought it was 32 not 24)

2 years ago they came by post.  But there is new management in place now so it may have changed.

It’s always worth applying as there are are sometimes children at all of the schools who decide that for whatever reason it’s not for them. 

Dd just did Tring (and hated it so didn't apply) the year before she had done Bird College and OPES.  

Mine didn’t want to go to London either joyofdance so she only auditioned for 2 colleges and a school.  It is seen as second best by some though. 

We recently contacted our GP about some difficulties ds was having (he is autistic and severe anxiety was causing alarming behaviours).  The GP said if it happens again call the police and they will arrest him!!!!  Ds is 15 years old!

Each school is allocated a certain pot of money. The actual amount depends on various factors but is different for each school. The schools each decide the size of their intake too so percentages are difficult. Eg if school A allocates 20 DaDas and has 30 students in total but School B might have 20 DaDas but their intake is 60 students. 

What i did do was to look up the OFSTED report for each school and that tells you the total number of students at the time of inspection and the number of students in receipt of a DaDa. Some are a bit out of date now though. 

Only Level 3 qualifications give UCAS points

There are 3 different sizes of Btec Level 3 diplomas - The Btec Extended Certificate is equivalent to 1 A level and you study it alongside other subjects.  The Btec National Diploma is equivalent to 2 A Levels and the Btec Extended Diploma is equivalent to 3 A levels and is usually a full time course.

My son is currently applying for a Level 3 Btec Extended Diploma in Music and it is accepted for entry to music degrees at almost all universities except, Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham & Manchester (Birmingham & Manchester accept it if you have A level music as well).  

Trinity Diplomas are Level 6 which is a degree level qualification) so they do not accrue UCAS points.  You can top up the Trinity Diploma to a full degree at one of a handful of institutions (Middlesex Uni, GSA (Surrey) & Arts Ed (City University).  Some Universities will allow the Trinity Diploma to be used as credits under prior study transfer schemes.

Unfortunately many universities will not accept dance grade UCAS points to make up the total.  For Music we did find a few that will such as  Oxford Brookes plus at least one other I can't remember.

I just say dd wanted to give dance her best shot but keep academic options open so she chose to go to an US where she could also study for A levels.

I agree with Pale.  If she wants to concentrate on her ballet more and do an associate class then something else needs to give.

One extra thing to take into consideration is that at Hammond (so I presume Tring is the same) I still claim child benefit for dd until the end of the 2nd year.  Central, ENBS etc you won't be able to do that as it's Higher Education.