Lema

Balletmum20 are you certain as I also haven't received a letter yet?

Amos don't write the Royal off too soon, your dd has had an amazing audition season and we were the same last year, didn't expect RBS finals but it happened for us so you never know!! Your dd must be a very talented little girl so she has as much a chance as anyone else x

No not ridiculous at all, well at least not to me as I am exactly the same!! But then I also have nobody to talk to about it and those that do try to ask just don't understand the whole process and then I end up spending half my time trying to explain about why there are two auditions, why she even wants to go "away" to school and then there's the "well I thought she got in last year?" Question, that leads to explaining about the whole funding issue....very draining as I swear even if I take my time explaining it all they loose interest and don't listen anyway!! I can't quite decided if I think the forum is a help or hindrance during the wait, as You can come on here and see everyone else getting their letter and yours hasn't arrived yet, it makes you think about it even more then as you know it must be on its way lol or you think well they have all had yes letters so ours must be a no else it would have arrived the same day as theirs could drive yourself mad!! But having said that at least everyone on here is in the same boat, they completely understand and support you no matter if it's a yes or a no!!

The wait is the worst balletqueen so I certainly feel your pain, but the worst of all is the wait after finals...ughhhh that really is torture and I swear I never achieved anything during last years wait, felt like I just sat around all day waiting for the post!!

Congratulations to all the yes letters received today and good luck for your finals!!

Very sorry to hear the bad news staceydor, hope your dd has took it okay? Always a terrible feeling to have to break the news, we just have to remember that it only means a no for today and only for that school!! And I think you may be right balletmum20 seeing as staceydor had her letter on Saturday, I'm sure the rest must be in the post!! Best of luck to everyone who will be stalking the postie today

Yes you have to return the form with the registration fee and then your sent a pack with the audition information, or that's how it reads on the letter at least? I just think that if you need mds then you obviously can't afford the fees so £155 is quite a lot of money to pay out to register your interest in the school, surely if you wasn't interested then you wouldn't have paid the audition fee in the first place or accepted the invitation to funding audition? I know at Tring you only pay the registration fee if you are actually accepting the place and can afford the fees if mds is not awarded, so those on lower incomes who can't afford to accept the place without funding don't have to pay the registration fee, unless they then go on to be offered a funded place! Seems a fairer way to me! And Elmhurst and RBS don't charge a registration fee after first audition either, although granted their whole audition system is done differently to Hammond and Trings.

What about one along the theme of Jekyll and Hyde..... mad professor costume, dramatic music and a very theatrical performance?!

Thank you very much DrDance

Our issue is that ddwont be able to take up a place without an mds, and Tring you don't have to pay the fee if you know you can't accept the place without funding, whereas Hammond it seems you have to pay the fee to be able to even go to the funding audition?

Awww fantastic news staceydor!! What year is your dd applying for? And best of luck for funding xx

I'm quite shocked to see that I have to pay a registration fee before being given the details of the MDS audition, £155 is a lot of money to pay out considering she could still end up with a no??

Wow a very unexpected yes for my dd from the Hammond today!! Sorry to hear your bad news mom2dancingkenz, I hope your dd doesn't let it put her off her game and I wish her all the luck in the world for her next audition

What terribly saddening news!! Lemmy, Bowie and now Alan Rickman...they say it comes in three's so let's hope we won't loose anymore of our 'greats' for a long while now!! RIP Professor Snape...

Dancingintherain I know how you feel, it is much less tense for year 8, I think like you it's the knowing that there are so few (if any!) places available that takes the pressure off. Best of luck to everyone with auditions for year 7 it's a very stressful time with all the anticipation, travel and nerves but try to enjoy the experience!!

Very sad news indeed, The world has lost another of its true and great artists!! Lovely to see all the tributes to him on social media sites though , just goes to show how many lives his music touched!! Thoughts are with his family and friends at this sad time, RIP Starman.

Thank you sarahw

Sorry but as we all know I am a complete novice when it come to pretty much anything ballet related.....what are swaybacks??

Hmmm maybe we should all start playing the lottery twice a week then, we may be lucky enough to have a win and if not we may have increased the amount the lottery pay to the government and in turn the government may put more of that into funding the arts and more MDS may become available, meaning more chance of our dc being able to go off to train at a vocational school!! Win win Edited for typo

Mumofthree first of all let me apologise in advance if this comes off as long winded or muddled but I'm going to be responding to a number of comments you have made over the past couple of posts... First of all you mentioned about schools charging for audition, well I was told by a dance teacher that by charging a relatively high audition fee the schools would only get serious candidates applying as if you weren't really that serious you wouldn't be prepared to pay £35/£40 to audition. This to me makes great sense as if it was just a free open audition you would get a very high volume of dancers go along to auditions just to give it a go, get a free class in a top school, get audition practice etc so then the schools would have to put on more dates taking up more of the panel and teachers valuable time doing auditions for people who actually have no intention of going to the school even if they were lucky enough to be offered a place, so I for one actually agree with the fee (even if I would much rather not have to pay it lol) My next issue is in response to you saying that you could see you and your husband remortgaging your house rather than having to disappoint dd if offered a place but no funding. Like you said that isn't even an option for most but even if it was with fee's being £30-£35k+ per year, plus throw in all the extras of insurance, house funds, school trips, travel, uniform etc some people may be able to scrape together enough to fund a year or two but what if dd was never offered funding, could you fund all 5 year of lower school not to mention upper school!! This is exactly why I've said previously that you have to prepare children to understand that if they don't secure funding then they don't go, and make sure they understand that not gettig funding doesn't mean they weren't good enough, it just means that there wasn't enough funding to take everyone and they just happen to be the one that didn't get it, so you brush yourself of and carry on. It is absolutely a heartbreaking situation to be in as you said, but because if your dc are well prepared and understand the situation then they cope with it just fine and it teaches them that they aren't going to be handed everything on a plate, that they must work hard to achieve the things they want and it gives them drive and passion and something to aim towards. My next reply is to you saying that you'd like the funding to be more transparent to you could have some idea on if it is achievable for your family and whether there is any point funding training now, firstly I completely understand where you are coming from as when my dd first auditioned last year I spent a lot of time on this forum asking questions about expenses and fees etc but you can't base dd's training on the likelihood of her being able to get into vocational school as without a crystal ball that's something you will never know, allow her to train if she loves it and you can afford it because even if she changes her mind in years to come, or doesn't get into vocational school it won't have been a waste as your daughter will have learnt a lot from the training, she will be well disciplined, she will be fit and healthy, she will have respect for others and learned how to work as part of a team an she will have a passion and talent, and she may use these skills in many areas of her life even if she were to give up ballet! My mother in law doesn't get the who "dance" thing and often asks me "well what if she gets into one of these schools and you have spent thousands of pounds over the years and then she decides she wants to be a vet instead" and I just say to her that I would still be happy as i am paying for the here and now and not for the future, at the moment she loves to dance and so I am happy to pay for that, if in the future she changes her mind then it won't have been a waste as she has learnt a lot and been happy whilst doing it!! And finally I just want to add a point to the unfairness with regards to personal circumstances for the funding, one thing I find extremely unfair (for funding for JA's, not sure if same applies to MDS) is that they may offer you an allowence for other siblings but they do not offer an allowence for maintenance paid for children from a previous relationship that do not live with you unless the payments are issued via court order! I find this ridiculous as I know some people with extremely high maintenance payments as they are paying for 2+ children from a previous marriage and so their disposable income was extremely reduced and the funding wouldn't account for it!! Would be interested to know if MDS is the same?! Sorry for long winded reply!!

Trust me the longer she dances and the more intense the training becomes the more friends and family will become critical and think your crazy!! But that's a whole different matter lol so for now best of luck and keep using this forum and asking questions, even the ones you might think are silly, as no question is a daft question and everyone on here is lovely and helpful and they've taught me A LOT!!

My point exactly Flexible Fred, although it would be nice for low earners to get funding priority it wouldn't be right, talent and potential must be the deciding factor, just a pity there isn't more funding available, but isn't that the case in most situations like these!

Mumofthree although it is a rather upsetting situation to be in it is a situation we were well prepared for, thanks to this forum. Dd knew from day one that if she wasn't offered funding then she wouldn't be going, and it has just given her more drive and something to work towards!! She also knows that it may never happen for her, just as it don't happen for many other passionate dancers out there who just don't make the cut, for various reasons, that's the reality of being a dancer I'm afraid. All I would say to you, or any parent of a young dc, is make sure that the child fully understands how brutal the dance world is, make sure they understand your personal situation completely (not just for vocational training but as someone else said even none vocational training costs can soon run away with you) and that they learn not to take things to heart because sometimes life just isn't fair and they need to brush themselves off and carry on!! With regards to the funding, well yes it would be nice to reserve it to those who need it most but at the end of the day the schools just want the best pupils they can get, those most suitable to the training, and if that child has a higher earning parent then that shouldn't mean they have less right to the help, the schools only have a set amount of beds, they just want to fill them with the best dancers, regardless of family situation.

No vonrothbart as she didn't secure funding and we can't afford the fee's, she has been offered a place again this year so got to go through it all again!!

Mumofthree just to put things into perspective for you, my dd had only been doing ballet for 12 months when she auditioned for White Lodge, Tring and Elmhurst and she made finals for all 3 and was offered a place at Tring....so getting lots of training in at a young age isn't always the be all and end all, especially if she has a natural ability, tun out, flexibility etc I'd look at associate classes when she's old enough but if you are on a budget I wouldn't worry about extra classes too much at the moment! ????