Evie

I sewed labels into everything..., socks, pants, pillow cases, pillows, duvet and covers, the school uniform (shirts, tie etc)dressing gown, pyjamas etc. I named every pair of shoes. My sewing is pretty useless, so my ds would often bring certain items home to be renamed! He's very good now at sewing elastics into his ballet shoes though!

My ds last school were 100% behind him when it came to PE. His strengths were PE and Music and Dance. His football coach there, was so proud of him that he had declared that he will come and watch him perform one day in ballet in the theatre! Eyes were raised at this, I can tell you! My ds did try to teach the football team to pirouette, from feedback I understand one or two were quite promising! When he left this school last year to go to vocational school, they held a special whole school assembly and presented him with a fabulous card signed by his classmates and applauded his success. It was a special school with brilliant teaching staff, supportive parents and an outstanding OFSTED report.

I seem to remember that the reason that Tring and Hammond audition were longer than Elmhursts, was because they both had singing auditions and jazz classes too, whereas Elmhurst was just ballet!

I have seen young dancers, formerly RBS JA's and MA's give up dancing altogether by the time they reach 16 or 18years of age. They have gone on to college or university to study academic subjects and never fulfilled that early potential, for various reasons. Sometimes because of physique, sometimes their love for ballet waned and sometimes because they wanted to be a 'normal' teenager, like non-dancing friends.It's a long long road, with so many decisions along the way and I have been shocked by some of the girls (and boys)who have just given up, just like that. One mum became so upset by her 16year old daughter's decision to give up that she couldn't talk about it for month's. When one teacher took hold of my friends dd upper arm and squeezed it, telling her that this was why she would never make a dancer (indicating that she was overweight), she left that London dance college after 6 weeks and came home and gave up dancing.However, it did have a happy ending, now in her mid 20's she trained to be a dance teacher, loves her job and is very happy.

My ds currently at Elmhurst, uses roll on deodorant too( and occasionally aftershave, but don't tell him I told you that)!!!

My ds attended Elmhurst and RBS associates. Elmhurst for just year 6 and RBS for 3 years. He would tell you that they were different, of course, he had different teachers. I remember a little girl telling her mum that she thought they were boring!! There is a lot of repetitive work, but this is no different to class and exam work in their normal dance school classes. The slow pace of learning and perfecting technique suited my son, so he always enjoyed both associate classes. Also, doing further dance classes saturday and sundays, may be too much for year 4 or 5 children. My ds wanted to do the classes because he wanted to audition to go away to vocational school. Every child is different, it's always worth having a go, your dd would probably enjoy the classes and make lots of new friends.

I have 6 children (yes, we do have a tv!), some dancing and some non dancing, 3 boys and 3 girls! So lot's of experience!! I have never interfered with any friendship problems and there have been many! Sometimes they were at fault and vice versa. I remember once when my very tiny dd was hit on the head by younger boys at her school and called a midget! Inside I was fuming, but she dealt with it herself and went and told the headmistress, I was very proud of her, especially as one of the boys mother was a teacher at the school!! All my children are independent and sociable, I am always here to listen and support them, but I believe where possible they should always be given the opportunity to deal with problems themselves firstly! I will step in if they ask me too, but I can't remember ever having to do that. I am usually needed for other things though, money, taxi services etc.......

My dd only grew to 4ft 9ins and gave up all hope of a dancing career, after watching her dancing friends go away to schools in London at 16 and 18! She did however work in Disneyland and Mexico dancing, where her height wasn't an issue! Her slightly older brother is 6ft and her 12 year old db is 6inches taller too!!

It will be my ds 3rd year, can I help? You can pm me.

On the question of height, my ds's older brothers are 6foot and 5ft 9! His sister's are 4ft 9ins, 4ft 11ins and 5ft 1ins, all grown up too!! He's already 5ft 3ins at 12, so thankfully will probably take after his brothers!! I am taller than my daughters and my husband is shorter than the boys at 5ft 8ins!!

Yes, it is hard. I still have other older children at home, but it wouldn't matter if I had 20 of them. I just miss him.

Thank you all for your kind words, I must add that this is the way I feel. He absolutely loves his school, he's very proud to be there, he's bonded with the other boys, his houseparents and his dance and academic teachers. I see his friends playing football here and can hear them playing in their garden on the trampoline, it's times like this when I miss him. I miss his company, he's noisy, he's funny, he's always happy and helpful. But he wants to be a ballet dancer and I miss that football banging against the fence in the garden!!

I miss my little boy so much, we are so caught up in the dance world that I feel we just get carried along with it. Reality has hit home for me these last 9 months. He will never know my pain, but if I could do it all again, I wouldn't!

That the children that didn't dance are still at home with you and not over 3 hours away, like our 11year old! Will I be closer to them in the future and he'll be so independent and not need me!! I feel the distance between us now and he's only in year 7!

Hello Billyelliot, my ds is in year 7 at Elmhurst. Regarding the boy's formal uniform, they wear navy trousers, which I bought from Marks & Spencer. 1 pair is sufficent and a couple of white shirts with long sleeves and smart black shoes. They look very smart in the uniform, but he's only worn it 3 or 4 times this school year!

Any thoughts on football. My ds is at vocational school and plays football most days, obviously the school know and don't seem to mind, he's on his 4th or 5th football this school year. Boys from every year including 6th form play and not even the breaking of the ballet teachers car window, seems to have dimmed their enjoyment!! Apparently they have 'learnt' to be more careful! I do hear of injuries all the time to other ds, none of them ever seem to be related to football though!

I just can't help myself from commenting on this thread. I am from South Yorkshire (born in Doncaster), from generations of coal mining ancestors. I have lived in Devon for 30 years still retaining my strong Yorkshire accent. All my children have 'southern accents', including my ds at vocational school. His old dance teacher, thought he spoke with a Yorkshire accent (he's never been there in his life) and the other boys in his year thought he sounded posh!! I would like to point out that Robert Parker and David Bintley are both from Yorkshire too and Mr Parker has definitely retained his Yorkshire accent. I don't mind 'Posh' people, I know quite a few. It's snobby people that look down on other's that get my back up and there are plenty of them in Yorkshire too!!!

My ds was accepted at RBS SS years age 10,11 and this year age 12.

Can't your dd spend some time at the leavers party and then hot foot it over to rehearsals. Or the other way round.After all, we are always dashing here and there with our dc and are often running in during class/rehearsals etc. (No longer a problem for me, ds at vocational school now!)

I didn't want my ds to have his lovely blonde curls cut off for ja classes and resisted for as long as possible. Even though his ja teacher always commented on the length of his curls!! At times, we probably could have put his hair in a bun!! Now he's at vocational school and the curls have disappeared forever.

My son is also week 2. There were approx 22-24 boys from years 5,6 and 7 together, per week. Half of those were from overseas.So they are very lucky indeed to have a place.

My son did his first RBS summer school when he was 10 and absolutely loved it. He said it felt like home, the staff were really kind to the younger boys. That year they were in double rooms and he shared with a boy he didn't know, but they got on really well. Last year all the boys were together in the year 7 dorm and he had a great time. He played lots of football and tried to learn some Italian from his roomies! He had never slept away from home before all this, but it has all helped with his confidence. He is looking forward to his 3rd year this summer and I am sure he will be looking out for the younger boys that are feeling homesick.

Just received letter from RBS, my ds has been accepted for SS for the third year running.

In the westcountry, we had 5 Bristol JA girls go to WL last year, plus 2 boys from Totnes JA's and another girl this year too from Totnes.

hello tutugirl, my ds is in year 7 at Elmhurst, there are 13 or 14 girls in year 7 and 9 boys now.