Lottie

Yes - My DS who is now at Central and in his 3rd Year and had a non vocational background. He was applying to Upper School for entry in September 2011 and when applying from Autumn 2010 he strictly speaking only had RAD grade 6 which he had taken in June 2010. He took his RAD Intermediate November 2010 and his RAD grade 7 in March 2011.

For one reason and another DS didn't audition for vocational school for Year 7 and when I asked him about auditioning for them in the following years he said he didn't want to try. He wanted to stay at home and didn't want to leave home. He was happy with his associate classes at London Junior and Senior Ballet, had support from his local dancing teacher/school, had support from his school friends who all knew about his dancing from year 7 and there was no bullying and went to a really good Comprehensive school. For years he coped with all the dance classes, travelling, homework and then the GCSE's and auditions in Year 11. He was very focused. Looking back I wondered how he/we did it all but we did. He's now in his 3rd Year at Central and off auditioning for jobs in Europe and he's only 18. At the end of the day it's what feels right for your child and you and if they want to go away. And remember they can get to a Vocational school at 16-18 without going to a Vocational school between 11-16. It is possible.

Yorkshire Ballet Summer School was £485 a week with accommodation or £300 without, last year.

Why don't you take the photos the best you can with what ever ballet shoes they can do the positions in and write a covering letter. Surely they'll see the potential. Years ago DS was given a waiting list place for the Senior Summer school and at that time we took those pictures in the garden. Good luck.

Ibis hotels can offer a good price sometimes. We've stayed in one up a street besides Euston Station a couple of times with no problems. It's called Ibis London Euston St Pancras. Looks like it's £83 for Sat 8th Feb. Even Ibis London Shepards Bush is only £63 for that Saturday but have no idea what it's like. Check on London Transport for London (TFL) on what Tube weekend rail work is taking place as you wouldn't want to book somewhere and then find that the tubeline you needed was out of action.

For September 2011 the choice of A/AS Levels were English Art Dance & one more which was possibly French, but not 100% sure on that one.

I believe that they are entering but haven't been selected.

I've used Dancing Boutique for years. They are based in Tunbridge Wells and have a web site to order from and an email if you need to contact them.

DS, at Central, has 6 leotards and 6 pairs of leggings for Ballet and 3 all-in-one black leotards for Contemporary to cover 6 days a week dancing. Then does 1 white wash and 1 dark wash each week. It saves him time having to wash clothes mid week and getting them dry.

Thanks for the link Alison. Am looking forward to having a go.

Also Mars Bars have got smaller over the years. I also believe that some toothpaste companies, a few years ago, made the top of the toothpaste tube bigger/wider so you then squeeze more toothpaste out along your brush and finish the tube quicker than when it was narrower. (you really only need a small pea size amount of paste on your brush)

Anyone else notice the poor Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz clip, fall over onto his knees and then get up and carry on?

Oh yes! Same here...if you're paying then they are quite happy to be seen with you.

My DS, who is also 3rd Year at Central, says that he's a terrible singer. He says that they always give him songs to sing that are too high for him. He didn't play a musical instrument either and wouldn't have had the time to learn one either as he was dancing 5 days out of 7 from year 8 or 9. Keeping up with all the homework was bad enough.

You could suggest that you'd move with him to wherever he goes to Uni and see the reaction to his face then!

Julie W - hope you got all your daughters things in your car and she's settled into her halls. We have a large hatchback and have to use a roof box as well when we move our two about. Also we use some bags to put bedding and clothes into and then vacuum them down to reduce them in size so we can get even more stuff in! Just Ballet - thanks. We're really pleased for her to. She will have to decide, by next year, on which accountancy exam board to follow which will depend on what type of career in accountancy she wants to follow.

I haven't eaten a doughnut, jammy or otherwise for months and months. I MUST resist and not buy any when going food shopping after all this talk about them. Oooooh. Fun fair donuts. Delicious - from memory! And the smell!

I too think that the original jam dounghnuts covered in sugar are the better ones. Why mess with something perfectly good in the first place, IMO. Who can eat a jammy doughnut without licking their lips?

I know that if you audition in September and are also wanting to audition for the Graduate scholarships, which are held on the same day, then you will be told if you were successful for the first audition for the Graduate class, before you can go into the second audition. Perhaps the girl from your dance school did that. This is what is put on their website: 'The Scholarship audition will take place in the afternoon of the 8th September and is only open to those that have auditioned and been offered a place on the programme, and will be awarded on ability only. Students then need to meet one of both of the following criteria: 1.Placed on the Graduate Level 2.Passed an Intermediate level examination and have reached their 14th Birthday by August 31st.'

Good luck to all those auditioning tomorrow for LJ&SB, it was DS auditions here 7 years ago that started him off on his journey. And good luck as well for those older ones doing the Scholarship audition. Merde to you all.

Non-DD who had a Summer Internship with Centrica/British Gas has had her contract extended until Christmas at least. She has also been offered by Centrica, a Graduate 3 year placement for Finance for September 2014 so she can become a Chartered Accountant while working for them. She's really pleased that she's sorted for next year.

DS couldn't do the splits until the Christmas after he started at Central.

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/ybs/collection?album_id=2000586496 YBSS photographs. Has anyone been successful in actually ordering any pictures from this site??? Two weeks ago, before we went away, I looked at the pictures and got the order numbers I required but today I went on to the site to order them and found that the order numbers have changed so I have just spent about 1 hour trawling through the slide show twice, found the pictures I want to order but then am now going round and round in circles trying to order them from the slide show thorough 'photobox' which is where you get directed to. Can't seem to find the order link on the slide show pictures even though it says at the begining of the slide show that you can order pictures from the slide show. I have had to register with 'photobox' to have an account to be able to order but still don't seem to be able to order anything. Going through the 'thumnail' pictures I can't get further than page 5 as it then takes me somewhere totally different and not YBSS pictures. I only want to order 3 pictures and it's been so frustrating. Might have to ring them up next week and see if I can order them by speaking to a human being. Any suggestions from anyone who has been successful with ordering a picture would be most helpful.

I sympathise with you as my DS also had a G fitting. We only had one choice of shoes for him, also Startrite. Looking at the Startrite styles online available for your daughter why not order several of those and see what they are like at home before returning any. I would expect that the shoes you have can be returned to the shop as long as the bottoms are not marked and you have the receipt & card you paid with. With Clarks online, you can order online and get delivered to your designated store where you can then go to try on with no pressure to buy and no postage costs either. Can't see this option with Startrite though but maybe it's there if you know where to look. Good luck.

I don't know percentages but DS was originally non-vocational at YBSS for 3 years and then vocational for the past 2 years.