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PJW

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  1. I think if there was one thing I would say to look for it would be to look at the number of older students. In particular the proportion of children that stay at the school all the way through to 16+. If a school has been around for 10 years or more then it should have a decent number of older dancers. It is really difficult to keep kids dancing through teenage years and there will always be a drop off but good schools keep kids inspired and have the ability and knowledge to allow them to keep making progress all the way to the end of a levels. If possible try to get to an end of year show or similar so you can see whether it is somewhere that will continue to cater for your child as they get older. Another thing I would add is that class prices have virtually no relationship to the quality of the school whatsoever from what I've observed over time so don't use that as a guide. Also schools change over time so don't rely too much on reputation as this can be slow to change. The school that had lots of students going to college 10-15 years ago may not be the best school on the area right now.
  2. In response to your original question @invisiblecircus I would say that €80 does sound fairly dear although not at the outrageous end of the spectrum. The problem for parents, as with a lot of dance related things, is that there is not an obvious direct comparison to work out if you're getting a good deal or not. That's part of the reason why there is such a disparity between what schools charge. I suspect many teachers don't know whether their shows are cheap, expensive, a good deal etc... Parents often, and understandably, do the next best thing which is try to work out the underlying costs of all the elements of the show and see how their money is being spent. Teachers also often feel obliged to break down the costs too which is why you get things like theatre hire fee, costume fee, dress rehearsal fee and so on. The issue then is teachers might feel exposed and under pressure to not add anything on top so as not to appear greedy but which ultimately might not be good business sense. Of course, clearly, not all dance school owners have such scruples... You don't really get this situation with, say, your local car garage but the relationship between teacher and parent is a bit unique and creates what can be quite awkward situations when money is involved.
  3. I've also always wondered about how exams and examiners are standardised. Do any exam boards offer the option of having exams filmed so that grading can be checked if there is an appeal?? If one of my a level students gets a grade that we are not happy with them we can see their paper and ask for another examiner to remark it. Ballet exams seem like a completely closed box. What's the point of seeing the examiners comments if you can't compare them with what the student actually did in the exam?? If the marks seem completely out of whack then the comments will do too and there's no way of checking.
  4. PJW

    Track suits

    Do you mean for branding with a logo as a school supplier? Rock the dragon do most of the uniform for our school and have been really good.
  5. Just a note in defence of group numbers. From a teacher's point of view they may possibly be preferable to doing solos etc depending on how many children you are thinking of involving. If you have, say, 15 students that you think would benefit from competitions and you give them all solos then that is 15 pieces of music to find, 15 costumes to source and 15 numbers to choreograph, teach and clean. Whereas you could do 2 or 3 group numbers and every student is involved in 2 or 3 dances rather than just the one solo. Also, and this is especially the case with festivals, if you have lots of solos and want to support and watch your students competing then you may find your entire half term is taken up with it as each child is on a different day at different times. Whereas with a group you may just have to do one day, plus all the children and parents are there together so there is more of a social and supportive aspect to it too.
  6. Have to say that I feel some of the exam boards have put things out to the public that are at best confusing. Some boards this afternoon are sharing out of date guidance on their social media. If they're not sure then they should seek further guidance.
  7. It's always good idea to speak to your current teacher first before embarking on any additional training especially if it's going to be at another localish dance school. If nothing else teachers just like to know when students are keen to further their dancing. However, there can also be a variety of legitimate reasons why a teacher might caution against it so generally best to speak to them first.
  8. Neil brand did a documentary 'The sound of movie musicals' and there is a section in one of the episodes all about Gene Kelly.
  9. Quick clarification - it's December rather than September.
  10. I think it's video auditions judged by a panel.
  11. Hello mummytwo, Our school does istd ballet and in general students would do an exam each year although this is not always the case especially as they move higher up the grades. For a child in year 7 I would say that grade 3 is not drastically low but at that age there will be some who are at grade 5 or 6 but it depends on how old they were when they started etc. I'll drop you a pm as well.
  12. My partner loves having nice stationery to use for planning lessons/choreography etc so I think that's a great idea. There's a shop called Typo that does lots of that sort of thing. Also I agree just a simple card explaining how much you appreciate the support is always really nice!
  13. Thank you pictures this is incredibly useful. I've written a guide for students at our school about post 16/18 training which I thought was pretty detailed but this has taught me a couple if things I didn't know! One question...I had always assumed that where a college e.g. urdang offer both a degree and a diploma course that students would essentially get all the same lessons i.e. degree and diploma students in the same ballet, jazz classes etc. And that the only difference would be the degree students would have a bit more theory work to do. Having read what you've put though I'm thinking that this isn't always the case. So Bird deliver a degree on behalf of Greenwich which is completely funded by student loan of £9K which is great but a lot less than their diploma fees so presumably you get more contact hours on the diploma??? Whereas urdang ask for a top up contribution on top of their degree fees to make them the same as their diploma so presumably students on both courses get the same treatment???
  14. Trinity Laban CAT is worth looking at too.
  15. When looking at potential new schools I would say to consider a few different things; How many older students do they have? If a school is managing to keep large numbers of 16-18 year olds dancing then it tells you they are doing something right. Secondly I would say it's really important to see a performance/end of year show - it's important that you make your own judgement on the qualities of the new school rather than relying only on what the teacher has told or promised you.
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