Farawaydancer

Admin staff at least are still in this week.

You don’t have to leave your local school, but CAT programmes do generally expect you to prioritise their classes ahead of other ones if there’s a clash.

DS went too and also thought the town was lovely.

Yes, £130 cash for us, and a long appointment to fill in the form. GPs can set their own prices for private work. Some charge, some don’t.

Both of my dc received mds from y7.

Pineapple do one I think, it’s usually around the end of July.

There’s always movement on the waiting lists. Your dd will be joining my dd’s year group from lower school (although she’s not actually staying), she’d have a lovely time if she does decide to choose Hammond, there are some fabulous kids in it. Well done her.

This has been the pattern in my dd’s year group too.

When dd was auditioning we had to pay the deposit before they would send us details and add us to the list for the mds/funding audition, but they’re not doing that audition any longer, yet still requesting the ‘deposit’?

My younger girl Young Dancer didn’t make finals either time she applied for Elmhurst but got/had an MDS elsewhere. However my boy Young Dancer did end up at Elmhurst and I think all but one of his class had been Young Dancers and/or JAs.

We found this tricky to negotiate, mainly because the CAT programme ran on days when she’d usually be having lessons at her ‘home’ school. But ultimately her teacher understood that she needed things that her school couldn’t provide.

I agree, really difficult to do. But not impossible to do, and without it nothing will change. In our case, there was no way I was sacrificing my ds’s mental health for a school place and possible future career. But the point I was making was that it’s naive to think this is an issue that only affects our vocational students. Cruel and inappropriate people are in positions of power throughout our lives, in schools, workplaces, churches, sports clubs…and they need dealing with.

I do think it’s important to remember too, that bullying, abuse, inappropriate comments, disregard for mental health etc. all happen in every school across the country. This is not limited in any way to vocational schools (although the higher rate of eating disorders is different) I work in ‘normal’ mainstream schools and I hear these complaints from parents and students far too often. The difference is that the parents and students speak up, it’s not a secret to be hidden. The number of teachers removed from teaching for misconduct is staggering, and the records are public. It of course doesn’t make it in any way ok or something to be normalised, but it really isn’t just a dance specific issue (or sport, or other vocational route).

My ds attended one of the schools in the programme for eight years and experienced bullying behaviour from a teacher in his second year there. The teacher didn’t believe ds should be there, that he wasn’t good enough, and would never have a career in dance, and made classes completely miserable for him and excluded him for example, from the choreography for the summer show . However, we addressed it with the school quite robustly, recorded concerns in emails (so they know we had ‘evidence’ of concerns raised) had meetings etc, and school dealt with it entirely appropriately and changes were made. This included us (and other supportive staff in senior management) challenging the teacher’s notion that, “This is just the industry he’s in.” He was firmly reminded that he was a 12 year old at school, and not a professional, and that it wouldn’t be ok to treat a professional in that way either! DS stayed, very happily and successfully, for another six years, with no negative consequences from other staff. There is nothing to be gained for us going to the press or lawyers, because we asked the school to make changes and they did, and that’s all that we wanted. The teacher concerned was sidelined and then left entirely a number of years ago. Ds was cared for exceptionally well in the rest of the time he was there. They also provided mental health support over the years, as and when needed. Dd is also at a different school and the same thing there when dealing with staff - neither school has been defensive when I’ve asked them to address issues, they’ve just got on and done it. I suppose what I’m saying is that if a parent/child has an issue then bring it up with the school and keep written records so that you can hold them to account when they say they will do things. They can’t deal with it if they don’t know about it.

Parents can complete an OFSTED Parentview questionnaire at any time, they don’t need to wait until it’s being inspected.