Anna C

I like this strategy. 🙌

The music from Manon is my favourite ballet music (with R&J a close second). I’ve had to stop playing the Manon score while in the car because the final pdd music makes me weep even without the wonderful choreo.

@Milzmam, have you looked at Tring Park’s 6th form? They’ve always had a good academic record and they do a 2 year Musical Theatre course as well as A Levels. https://www.tringpark.com/curriculum/vocational-curriculum/musical-theatre-course @Wimdancer, London Studio Centre runs associates up to the age of 18: https://www.londonstudiocentre.org/courses/lsc-associates

I’m not sure vaccination will even be “complete” by July, will it? I thought “every adult will be offered a vaccination by the end of July” - i.e. offered an appointment for the *first dose* of the two dose vaccine... If that’s the case then I’d think the end of October would be a more realistic date for everyone who wants the vaccine to have had both doses. 🙁

I assume @hgib23‘s dd is auditioning in year 11 for a year 12 place, so is 15/16 and taking GCSEs (or the equivalent) this year? In which case it’s normal to be auditioning for 3 year degree/Level 6 diploma places at (mainly) ballet upper schools e.g. Central and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for degree courses or ENBS for Level 6 diploma) as well as schools like Tring and Elmhurst which offer A Levels as well as a Diploma. There are some degree courses that have A Levels or equivalent as an entry for their 18+ degree courses (London Studio Centre, for instance) but for classi

Hello Shiloh and welcome to the forum. From memory - and it’s 6 years since my daughter was auditioning for 16+ vocational schools - I don’t think the number of years you’ve been en pointe will affect whether you get offered a place. It will be about how you dance at audition, your physique, your talent, your technical standard (i.e. what level have you studied and do you know the steps/sequences you’ll be asked to perform at audition). Some preliminary auditions might not involve any pointework, although finals certainly will. People who have auditioned more recently will be o

If you use the search function (top right) to search for Moorland (and choose to search “This Forum”, previous threads that mention Moorland will be shown as a list: https://www.balletcoforum.com/search/?q=Moorland&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=9

Nice to see the lurkers! ☺️ We are having an interesting chat about life after ballet over here, if it’s useful to anyone: https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/23489-life-after-ballet/

This is something I’m always banging on about, rowan - the importance of vocational students having a good bunch of GCSEs to enable them to do A Levels and go down the academic route if necessary. I honestly think all 16+ vocational schools should offer A Levels or the equivalent, rather than starting students on a degree course at 16.

You don’t need to have a dc currently employed as a dancer or in full time training to be of value here, Pups_mum - over the years I’ve “known” you, you’ve never failed to give brilliant advice. I hope all the “retired” parents here stick around; we all have valuable experiences to share and there *are* positives alongside the negatives and the things we’d do differently, second time around. I don’t think it’s a bad thing that we’ve been honest on this thread; it’s made me feel better to hear from other parents who have felt as I did, and hopefully it’s helped others too.

Yes, this is so true. I felt guilty that I’d been fooled by a pair of really good salesmen, with the gift of the gab and full of bold promises, because I thought that a funded place (waiting list and unfunded boarding being the other two options) was my dd’s best chance at 16 and one she was desperate to take. I never wanted her to resent me and say that I hadn’t even let her try, but I beat myself up for a long time for letting her go to that “school”. Now when I look back, I can accept that at least I wasn’t alone in being fooled and that a lot of the information I needed was

Unfortunately, in the UK, not all of these institutions ARE schools in anything other than name - I know of more than one “Upper School” that is literally a private business, with one owner/director who employs/employed family members. There is no obligation for such institutions to be inspected. They don’t have to have a Board of Governors, and as the full-time pupils are 16 and over, it’s a bit of a grey area about who to complain to and how. I really feel that ALL full-time dance training “upper schools” should have to be independently inspected, and that should include acco

Go with your gut feeling, Mrs R. On the few occasions I ignored mine, I regretted it immensely. Ask for people’s honest experiences of schools and look at the big picture; how many students complete the course, how many get employment/good upper school offers, would the class sizes/teaching style/communal living suit your child. Don’t be fooled by good salesmen or impressive looking policies on injury, bullying etc without knowing if these policies actually happen in practice. Remember that dance training is a journey, not the end destination, and that it brings many transfera

You beat me to it, SP! ☺️

I’m “retired” in that dd started and left 16+ ballet training due to a training-ending injury. She is physically only able to dance part-time now so returned to academic school for A’levels and is in her 3rd year at Oxbridge. She’s proud to be a member of the university’s competition dance team. She had many happy years as an Associate at Central and Tring CBA and passed her RAD Advanced 2 with Merit while taking A levels. I’m an avid ballet-goer and Royal Ballet fan so spend a lot of time reading reviews and discussions over in “Performances seen” as well as moderating here i