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ZooZoo

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Everything posted by ZooZoo

  1. Very many congratulations to all the yeses. Sorry to the nos. I sense that the post may have unintentionally become rather negative of WL and of course each person's experience is very different there. What I would say, though, is that I wish we had not taken up the WL offer without finishing seeing the other schools. We never really made a choice and accepted WL. I wish someone had told me then, continue to have a look at the other schools and have a real think about which school is best for your child. Don't take WL just because you think it is the best but actually make an active choice. Consider all the aspects of the school. For example, I didn't twig on till quite late in the day that triple science is not possible at WL but is at Tring/Hammond. Consider all the aspects that you need to. Is your child going to thrive on the competition? Would they thrive better knowing there is no assessing out, for example? It is rare to be assessed out at Tring/Hammond and WL still do it every year (less common in year 7/8 but still happens).
  2. I don't know what the solution is but the "problem" is that so many girls are assessed out of vocational schools at age 13/14 or 16 and whichever way it is put to them it must be obvious to them that a lot of the time it is due to body issues. This can't be good for future mental health, and perhaps could have been foreseen in some circumstances.
  3. Look - I know that my post was going to cause some debate and make some people feel uncomfortable. So having posted it I thought - Ok let's google Darcy Bussell's mother for example and have a look at whether or not she is short and plump or tall and balletic. It's the latter. Of course there are exceptions but as a general rule most children follow one or other birth parent (sometimes both) but two 5 ft 5 well built parents are not likely to end up with a 6ft 2 lean kid, that's all.
  4. I am not sure what the answer is here - clearly there are many kids who join vocational school at year 7 and then change shape (or grow too tall or stay too small). For example many boys don't make it to upper school because they are "too short", but that shouldn't be a surprise should it? I think I can tell which kids are going to have a chance of "making it" professionally (classical) just by looking at the height/shape of their parents. I know it's not PC but the schools should pay more attention to this I think. Otherwise they are setting these kids up to fail and are not protecting the "very vulnerable young people".
  5. Yes - it is optional (employees can opt out).
  6. Is Tring CBA separate or connected to the School? If you do well at CBA do they ever offer a place at the school or encourage an application?
  7. Auto enrolment is optional so it won't affect it, will it?
  8. Yes they add back pension contributions and virtually any other deduction made from gross salary. So it is the gross salary which "counts". Shortly with changes to the way taxable rental income is calculated on any buy to let property, that is going to impact too - bit unfair in my view.
  9. It might be helpful to know which school the OP is referring to, for people contemplating sending their children there. I presume it is Tring is it?
  10. My impression (may be wrong, don't have a lot of experience) is that that the "ranking" is like this For ballet RBS Elmhurst Tring Hammond and that you can reverse this for academics! Perhaps with RBS/Elmhurst joint third for academics....
  11. I think that the academics at vocational schools do take a back-seat to the training and performances. I have no doubt that my son would have got a better crop of gcses at his local school (with better grades) than at vocational school. The class sizes at vocational can be smaller, which is good, and there is less time spent "messing around" but it's clear that they don't really care too much about pushing up a C to a B or a B to an A....
  12. Huge Congratulations balletqueen - I have sent you a personal message. Zoo x
  13. Thanks Billyelliot - I will send you a personal message...
  14. Thanks for replying so promptly Pictures. I am hoping that someone with current experience of Elmhurst may be able to confirm that then.... Zoo
  15. Can anyone please explain to me how assessing out works at Elmhurst? For example, what years do they assess out in, how many typically leave, and what does the assessing out procedure mean. For example, are they "just" asked to leave or is the MDS removed (which amounts to the same thing for most of us I guess). Thank you!
  16. You would think that some of the children offered WL recently would be the same as those offered the MDS at Tring, and may now choose to go to WL. In which case I guess there may be some movement. I don't know how much though! Let's assume that you are number 25 at Tring. That doesn't initially sound too hopeful...., but if 24 get offered White Lodge/Elmhurst, and those are the ones ahead of you......
  17. Do you think that you can phone up and find out what number you are on the reserve list? It would make a difference in planning to know if you were number 7 or number 60, for example...
  18. The cliff edge over £90,000 is madness!
  19. Drusilla Duffill in Burgess Hill is also excellent. Good record of getting kids into JAs and White Lodge. Also they do lots of different dance forms - Jazz, Modern and Tap as well as classical ballet.
  20. WL take the kids to Thorpe Park so they weren't concerned about Rollercoasters!
  21. I would not worry at her age. That is the comfortable way to stand for lots of children, especially the ones with more flexibility. My son used to do this to a degree. At one time he did ballet and gym. Whilst the gym helped for flexibility and strength it did not help in posture. In fact it makes a curved back worse, I think (will defer to those who know). When he stopped doing gym, his posture got better. You could ask her dance teacher for simple pilates type gentle exercises which might help with core strength.
  22. And eg see here - a school advertising how much you can save on boarding using childcare vouchers! http://www.qe.org/armed-forces/
  23. I don't see WHY any of them would not accept childcare vouchers for the boarding element. I know WL do not, but I do not understand the reason that they don't. Do any of the others? I would be very interested to know. The interaction between MDS and boarding element would be a tricky calculation, but not impossible... It would take off a few thousand a year off the fees, I would have thought. Only up to age 16 though I believe. Clarification on childcare vouchers for military families has been requested from the MOD and this is the published response. Childcare Voucher SchemeClarification from HMRC on the use of Childcare Vouchers for boarding school fees has been requested and received by the MOD. It has been confirmed that private tuition fees come within the definition of qualifying childcare, provided that all the other qualifying conditions for employer provided childcare are met. Boarding school fees qualify to the extent that these relate to care and to supervised activities, including private tuition, which are provided outside the compulsory education. It is therefore important that the costs for these are identified separately from the costs charged for the compulsory education. If there is no separate identification of these elements, then the total cost would be regarded as being for the compulsory education, and vouchers provided for such costs would be chargeable to tax and NIC. Therefore, childcare vouchers CAN be used for the boarding element of school fees, and this must be made clear on school bills and invoices. Changes have also been made to the scheme that make it possible to join and leave at any time, and which enable parents to start claiming vouchers before they have their childcare in place. For further information on the scheme visit www.modchildcare.co.uk. Childcare voucher scheme tax thresholds for claiming tax free entitlement for childcare changed on the 6th April this year. those on the Basic rate of tax will have seen no change those on Additional or Higher tax rate banding are now entitled to a lesser amount. The process for evaluating entitlement also changed as it now includes taxable allowances and bonuses. This process became subject to financial scrutiny by the MOD and has taken around five months. The scheme, administered by Sodexo, should now be available for applicants and all of those who applied on or post 6th April should also have had their applications processed. We recognise that the childcare voucher scheme is very important to a large number of families and if you are encountering problems with securing childcare vouchers then please let us know so that we can highlight this issue by emailing ec@aff.org.uk.
  24. No I am sure that anyone can apply. It is fair to say that mostly associates get in though. This year's year 7 boys were all associates. I don't know about the girls but I would guess most if not all were associates too. If you have a talented child who for whatever reason has not applied to be an associate I would say you had as good a chance as the current associates. However, if your child has tried and failed to get in associates before, it would probably then be rare for them to get into WL for year 7...
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