Mumofadancer

Thank you for all of the replies and DMs. Think we are going to go local this year and maybe save this for her 'special' birthday next year

Evening all, my DD has asked for a professional photoshoot for her birthday. She loves (as do I) the work of Jon Applegate and he seems to be the photographer of choice for the dancers she follows on social media. I just wondered if any of you have done something similar and could give an idea of costs? I see on Jon’s website there is a sitting fee but no indication of the cost of the images which I assume aren’t included. Any info would be appreciated as would recommendations of other photographers you would recommend. We’re in Tyneside but willing to travel. Thank you in advance

We have had experience of this, teachers holding you to ransom- 'if you leave my school you can't go to another of the same exam board'. It's like the RAD mafia! As everyone else has pointed out you are a paying customer and have a right to take your custom where you feel is best for your children easier said than done I know It gets harder the further up the grading system you go as less schools offer the senior grades so my advice would be to go for it as soon as you can. There are some good suggestions here about how to leave without burning your bridges- this is a very small community (!) and your paths will no doubt cross again in the future. I am sure you and your DDs will make the right choice. The best thing we have done is move my DD to a different school where she has regained her enthusiasm and love of dance

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post and those who pm'd with advice or just to share their own experience. I thought I'd just update you to let you know how things have progressed. The day after doing their grade 8 exam the teacher wrote to all of the girls in the class to say that she was no longer going to do the Adv1 class and recommended that they find another teacher. Whilst this was a bit of a shock at the time it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. DD completed a summer school at another fairly local school which she thoroughly enjoyed. She has now enrolled there and absolutely loves it. She is doing twice as many ballet classes as were on offer at her previous school and can also do all of her other dance disciplines in the same place. She has well and truly regained her mojo and the exercises in Adv1 she struggled with so badly she is now completing with ease! After all the tears and drama so glad to report a happy ending!

Thanks for all of your responses, to answer some of the questions asked; My DD is 14 so I'm sure her hormones will play a big part in this ????however,she loves all of her other classes so it's definitely an issue just with the advanced 1 class. Unfortunately her dance school doesn't offer the Advanced Foundation grade which seems like a great idea. It may be that we could find another school that offers this but I'm not sure how that will go down with her teacher- a recent request to attend another school for an unset class ( which also isn't offered at their school) didn't go down too well???? I think there is an element of 'cliqueiness' in the group, there are only 4 in the class and in the studio it always seems to be the other three girls in the front row and DD at the back. I have tried talking to her teacher but she's not willing to let DD move back a grade, she thinks it's all in her head and that she's capable of doing the grade, which is flattering but not very helpful! DD doesn't want to dance professionally, though she does want to teach so maybe I should just let her drop out, I'm just concerned that if she does- given that she's finishing grade 8 in a matter of weeks, she'll lose all of the strength and skills she's learned.

Hoping to get some advice. My DD has been dancing for several years and is currently working towards her RAD grade 8 (which she will finish after her exam next month) and Advance 1. The problem is since going into Adv1 she has suffered from a complete loss of confidence- she comes out of every class upset, saying she can't do it and now wants to give up completely. At first I thought this was just the challenge of moving to a more difficult syllabus which would pass after a couple of months but it's not getting any better. DD has spoken to her teacher to ask if she can drop back down to Intermediate but she's not willing to let her do it. I'm at a loss as to what to do to try and support her, she came out of her class last week in tears and said she doesn't want to go back. The Adv1 class is very small and she feels that all of the other girls are better than her and that she's holding them back. She's perfectly happy in all of her other classes, should I just admit defeat and let her give up Adv1? I'd love to kow if anyone else has gone through a similar situation and managed to get through it