Living the Dream

I too was worried about the lack of 'A' levels at ENBS, however we initially decided to home study 'A' levels, but on speaking to the Head of Academics at ENBS, she said that if they complete 2 years training, they will come out with a level 5 qualification and on completion of 3 years they come out with a level 6, which is as Ribbons says the equivalent to an honours degree. 'A' levels are only level 3. She also informed me that students who had left in the past for various reasons, she had managed to secure places for them a University, with some studying medicine, physiotherapy and law degrees. Hope this helps. LTD

Hi Ribbons, my DD is loving ENBS. The days are long, but the training she is receiving is second to none. The standard of the training was one of the reasons that she chose ENBS over Elmhurst, not that the training at Elmhurst isn't excellent too, but she wants to be a classical ballerina and felt that there was too much dance diversity at Elmhurst for her. Also there are 12 girls and 11 boys in her year, so pas de deux is also a main part of the syllabus. At Elmhurst, the current year 6.1 has approx 18 girls and only 6 boys, therefore I would imagine making pas de deux work difficult to be consistent. My DD loves living in London and the 'all girls' hostel in Kensington I found is fantastic and very safe and secure, right next door to the Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park, with Kensington High Street a short walk away. The majority of her year are staying here too. If you are lucky enough to be offered places at either or both of these school, then the choice would be personal to what your child feels is right for them. They are both fantastic schools. Just to add that at ENBS there are more opportunities to perform, with a performance at Christmas at the school and the End of Year Performance at a main theatre in London. Also opportunites to perform with the Company. If they are lucky enough to be accepted into Third Year then they go on tour of the UK with ENB2, which is the sister company of ENB. Check their website for further details. Please feel free to PM me anytime if you want any further information and may I wish everyone lots of luck for the forthcoming auditions. It is a very stressful time of the year. Keep your options open and bear in mind that a lot of international students come over for entry in sixth form. In my DD's year there are 6 British girls and 6 International girls, from Japan, USA, Portugal, Australia, France and South Africa. LTD

Hi taxi4ballet, it's not just RBS that don't like ouchpouches. The main vocational schools frown upon them, apparently it's so that the dancer can feel the floor when they are on pointe (whatever that means!!!!!). However my DD says she prefers lambswool and would never go back to ouchpouches, even though she and her classmates for the first couple of years at WL, used to try and hide the ouchpouches from their teacher and dreaded the day when they were told to take off their pointe shoes for an inspection LOL

As stated in my previous post , my DD starting using heel elastic from Year 9 at RBS WL, so I'm not sure where the information regarding RBS not allowing heel elastic has come from. All RBS Upper School students also use heel elastic too.

My DD was at RBS WL and she starting putting heel elastic on in Year 9.

My DD who is in her 6th year of Vocational training, sews Bloch heel elastic in the way that Pas de Quatre has described, on both her soft blocks and pointe shoes. One pack will do 2 pairs of pointe shoes. We also have a pair of Marianella Nunez's pointe shoes and these too have heel elastic sewn either side of the heel seem in a big loop. Hope this helps

I can only add that if I had looked at the accomodation a WL prior to my DD gaining a place and this being as you say VERY important to you, then she would not have been going. So in hind sight and after 5 years of fantastic training, I am glad that I did not see the Year 7 boarding facilities prior to new parents day, as I thought it was awful and so did she for that year too. However after being 5 years down the line, it is the training at vocational school that is the most important and not the boarding facilities to me, as some schools facilities can look amazing, but the standard of the training might not be the best. Of course this is only my opinion. Hope this helps

When my DD auditoned for Elmhurst sixth form this year, I asked the finance director how much they charge on top of the DaDa contribution and she said £3,000 per term, so that's £9,000 for the first year. In the 2nd and 3rd year they move into their own flats. On top of this you have medical insurance, ballet shoes, and ballet uniform etc. Hope this helps.

Hi KathyG I believe that RBS Upper School is still MDS because they do not qualify for DaDa's as their course does not cover the Diploma in Professional Dance, only 'A' Levels. LTD

My DD has been at vocational school since she was 11 (5 years) and will be embarking on the next 3 years of her vocational training next week. A piece of advice that was given to me when she first went away was to never tell your child that you are missing them while they are away. I thought that this was very odd at first, but the idea is that they may be having such a good time that this may prompt them to say that they are missing you too, when in reality they are too busy and having too much of a good time and we may make them feel guilty for not missing us. Also I found that saying 'Have you had a good day' was not always the best start to a conversation with my DD, as it sometimes opened the floodgates for everything that she felt had been bad during the day,no matter how big or small, to be gotten off her chest, along with plenty of tears. This made me feels so terrible after I had put the phone down, that I used to call the houseparent, who would then tell me that she was off laughing and joking with her friends. Kids !!! She says to me now, that even if she had a bad day, that she dealt with it fine until she spoke to me on the phone and that once she had got off the phone she was fine again and just dealt with it. Sorry I hope this is making sense, as I am feeling emotional just recalling these past years !!!!!!! We always had a set time each night for our phone call or texting and I made sure that nothing else was happening during this time, so that she had my undivided attention. I can't say that during the past 5 years that her being away has got easier to deal with, in fact I would say each year for me has felt worse, but thankfully having her brother at home has kept me very busy, but I wouldn't change anything as she has thrived. Finally all I can say is good luck to all your DDs and DSs who are embarking on an amazing adventure and to all the parents experiencing this for the first time, you are not alone. There are lots of wonderful people on here, who have been through it and just remember that our children are following their dreams.

Sorry for the delay, but just donated £10 as I have found this site and it's members invaluable. Thank you all. LTD

I have the following items for sale, all in excellent condition. If you are interested please send me a pm, as any funds raised will go towards my DDs living expenses when she starts her Upper School training in September: 2 x New style Tracksuit Tops Chest size 32" 2 x New style Tracksuit Bottoms Waist size 26" 3 x WL school skirt Waist 24" (adjustable) Length 20" (will sell separately) 2 x WL Navy Cardigan 32" chest 1 x WL Navy Caridgan 34" chest 1 x Navy blazer (minus the school badge) Chest 27" (worn very little during year 7 & 8) 6 x Trutex White open neck long sleeved shirt (as new) 2 x White open neck short sleeved shirts age 10 7 x White open neck short sleeved shirts age 11 to 12 (worn in Year 10 & 11) Many thanks LTD Edited as I have found some more uniform hiding in her wardrobe

When my DD was auditioning for a Year 7 place, she only auditioned for RBS WL and Elmhurst as she wanted to concentrate on ballet. She also knew that if she was lucky to get offered a place at either of these 2 schools, she could only go if she got funding. We were very naive at the time of auditioning and to be honest I am grateful that we were. I only ticked the 'be considered for WL' box on her JA to MA form because everyone else in her class did, as I didn't think she would stand a chance of getting into the school. How wrong was I???????? I would say, be realistic, it's not the end of the World if they don't get into the school they want to as you can always re-audition. So keep training at your local school and/or JA's MA's or SA's and audition for sixth form. If they have the talent then they will be successful, but our DDs and DSs will take different routes to achieve this success.

Aileen, I got the information regarding ENBS from their website. So far this year only 2 girls from RBS have contracts with RB and neither of these went to White Lodge (don't know about the boys going into RB) and I only know of 1 boy with a contract at ENB from RBS, all other RBS students so far have contracts abroad, but of course the year hasn't finished yet.

I find this a fascinating discussion as I have always thought it somewhat unfair that RBS's 100% employment rate for the Upper school includes a whole cohort of dancers who were trained elsewhere 11-16 and then RBS creamed off the top ones. The fact that so many top dancers apply to the upper school is due to its reputation, and they then RBS continues to enhance this as they have the top dancers at graduation. Plus they assess out throughout the school thus weeding out all those who are not fitting the bill at that precise moment...(and even then what proportion of the lower school make it to the upper school?) CeliB's quote. I'm not sure where you have seen that RBS has a 100% employment rate as this is untrue. Their Annual Report states that they maintain a high employment rate of graduating dancers, but very few graduates (if any) join the RB company each year. In comparison ENBS states that they usually achieve 100% employment for their graduates and 45% of the dancers at ENB company received their training at ENBS. I believe that if your child has talent they will thrive and be successful at any of the schools mentioned above.

I have sent you a PM

The event on the 9th June 2012 is The White Lodge Museum 2012 Diamond Jubilee Open Day: including guided tours, historical talks and dance workshops and is open to the public, but not with the traditional dancing on the lawn. The Summer Fair on 16th June is just for family and friends of RBS Students at WL and not open to the public. Hope this clarifies things

You are invited to watch a presentation class on the final Saturday, but it's limited to 1 guest per student. You can ask to be put on a list for extra tickets. We managed to get an extra 1 ticket but didn't find out until the day before. Hope this helps. LTD

Sorry meant to add that my original post was regarding British students entering RBS at Year 11 and not international students.

Hi Ribbons You are correct that 2 girls are joining RBS Year 11 in September however they should have been going into Year 10 but have been moved up one year. Both these girls are foreign students and therefore have not been educated in the UK. Hope this clarifies things. LTD

I called HMRC last week to find out if the Diploma in Professional Dance still qualified my DD to receiving Child Benefit and they hadn't got a clue, so after reading their leaflet it said that will still pay Child Benefit for a young person aged 16, 17, 18 or 19 who is in full-time non advanced education at a school or college studying a National Diploma and that is what this qualification is. Fingers crossed they still pay this to my DD.

I'm not sure where you got your information from regarding entry into RBS at Year 11, as in my experience in the past 8 years I only know of 1 boy who joined in Year 11 and no girls. The main new intake after Year 7 entry is into Year 10. I don't know how you would balance GCSE subjects as they are limited at vocational schools compared to non vocational schools. Not sure about intake into Elmhurst in Year 11 though. Not sure if this has helped

My DD was a JA from age 8 (Year 4) and applied for RBS SS twice and never got in, not even on the waiting list, but got a place at White Lodge for Year 7 I agree with Evie that acceptance into SS or NOT in our case, means absolutely nothing !! Don't let your talented children lose hope if they don't get into SS. LTD

At WL all girls do pointe work in Year 7. Some girls will have already started pointe work, but quite a few will have not. Can't remember how many hours a week they do, but by Year 8 they do approx 1 hour per day. I've not heard of anyone being assessed out because they weren't good on pointe, however girls have been assessed out because their feet are not up to the training required. Hope this helps. LTD

Yes this is true