Actsingdance

To be fair to the music teacher (I did a music degree) people who can keep time in dance can't always in music and vice versa.

Oh dear. Dd hates PE and is ecstatic she won't have to do it next year But at least her school report acknowledges that "understandably she enjoys the gymnastic & dance elements of PE the most" However in a PE dance lesson they were asked to go into groups and make up dances. When they performed them to each other they were asked to give comments. Dd commented " I really liked your movements & use of the space, now you need to work on getting the moves together as sometimes you weren't". The male PE teacher told her off for making negative comments - dd is very used to having to give and be given constructive feedback in drama & choreo sessions. The school is very competitive in sports - I bet that wouldn't have been an issue in cricket or tennis techniques. As dd said how will they know how to improve for next time.

There is a girl in dds class at the moment who is a couple of years younger. She keeps up fine and is one of the stronger ones ( we lift share with her) As for number of dances in the show - you get one dance per class. So if you only do ballet you get one dance. Tap, modern, contemporary etc all get a class. Then those who attended Easter school get a dance and they might also hold a show class for a specific dance which say grade 5 and above may be invited to.

Dd won't be boarding and won't be allowed to take her phone into school (the boarders can have them at the boarding house but they are not allowed in school) so it should be easier to monitor. Her dance school friends are also her school friends (it's round the corner from the junior & senior school) but she doesn't really socialise much out of school/dance because of where we live, our work and of course the time spent dancing. She has just a very small group if close friends, they are not part of the dance group and shed like to keep in touch.

Dd says that some of her friends haven't got FaceTime. Geographically everyone lives scattered over the area so there is very little socialising out of school hours or activities I do wonder (and JulieWs experience seems to bear this out) if they won't just grow apart. They are all off to academically selective private schools (one on a scholarship) and dd is off to vocational. Totally different experiences. They keep telling her they don't understand why she is leaving them. They can't understand it's her passion in life.

Dd has 1 and a half days left at her junior school and our thoughts are turning to keeping in touch with her old school friends. One is moving away from the area and going to a new school, the others are going on to the senior school which juniors feeds into. In your experience do your children keep in touch with their old friends when they go off to vocational school. A girl we know who went off to RBS a few years ago kept in touch via Facebook but I really don't want to allow dd to have Facebook. Should I relent because if the circumstances. Should I suggest old fashioned writing, texting or will they just grow apart and make new friends at school ?

My daughter turns 12 in the autumn and is in Grade 3. She took Grade 2 2 years ago when the old syllabus was being taught. After about 6 months a group who had been dancing longer took their exam and the crest began the new syllabus. However this year is their bi annual show hence the exam has not actually been taken. The teacher prefers to take them slowly through the grades and make sure they develop the strength & technique needed. She won't actually take the exam now as she starts vocational school in September.

Have you had a letter today Pointeshoes? My dds current dance school doesn't offer an inter foundation class either as there sent enough though they do have an intermediate class. My understanding is they expect most of the year 7s to start in IF with a few who have already taken it doing Intermediate It will only be a few as the minimum age to take IF is 11 so some year 7s wont have been old enough. They won't be doing grades (dd is a bit disappointed as she's been working in her current grade for ages as it was delayed due to shows/syllabus changes etc)

The college where dh used to teach used to say that they expected applicants to be working at around Advanced 1 level on entry. You could enter at age 16 or 18. (It is MT not ballet)

At the school dd will go to in September they don't do RAD grades only vocationals. They are vertically streamed with the 11 year old Yr 7s starting with inter foundation unless they've already taken it in which case they do Intermediate.

How ridiculous. I run a similar put on a show in a week and reduced our lunch break from an hour to half an hour because the children got bored. However we do it in a local school and its classes as a workshop/class. So we don't licence the rehearsals as a performance.

My dd doesn't want to be a ballet dancer. She wants to be a musical theatre performer and also teach. Failing that she wants to go into politics!

We need a secret signal.

And do the grey skirts have to be I've exact brand/style?

Do you know what sort of age these sizes relate to. I'm not sure how inch sizes relate to say M& S age 11

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately it wasn't an option to do both. I chatted to her and the teacher afterwards and dltjough she really enjoyed the challenge in terms of improving her technique it's too much too soon yet and so we are going to stick with her normal grade classes and the private lesson. Also the inter class clashed with my younger child's martial arts class in the next town.

I'm listening in and there are 14-16 year olds in this class, two of whom are off to upper schools in September - eek!

She has her normal grade classes as well. She wants to do musical theatre but is a little behind in her ballet which she needs to work in to keep up. The potential is there but she's done a lot of drama, jazz modern etc in the past.

She's going to a full time performing arts school.

Dd has been taking a half hour private lesson in preparation for September as her dance school doesn't offer Inter Foundation. However her dance teacher has said she can join in with Intermediate at no extra charge. Unsure whether its too much of a jump. She needs to work on her technique. Which would you choose?

What size is he and are they split sole or full sole. I've got loads of 2nd pairs.

Wouldn't it just be easier to buy a black pair?

I have to say that I am concerned that dd will be required to wear split sole canvas shoes after years of her RAD teacher saying they should wear full sole. Saying that another teacher at her studio said that full sole leather don't suit the shape of her foot as they look baggy due to her high instep. I explained that badly but she showed me what she meant. She suggested satin but when I told her about the uniform list agreed canvas would look nice. Looking nice is good obviously but will it encourage strength? I guess they know what they are doing.

What are children wearing for the induction day? The letter says either their own school uniform or ordinary clothes.