famcandance2

Hi My dd has been before and has absolutely loved it. Some of the meals are taken at school and some at the boarding house. The meals are very good, and my dd is a picky eater, but has had no problem with what they fed her. The year dd attended, they went swimming one night and also went for a Macdonalds one night. We have found the teaching to be very good, at the same standard as the school as the teachers from the school are the ones giving the classes. My dd had an absolute ball when she went and she will be going again this summer. You can always pm me if you want any more info or if your dd doesn't know anyone and wants my dd's name. My dd is 13.

Hi Not sure if anyone knows the answer to this question, but am hoping that as usual there will be someone, somewhere who knows. My ds has an mds to a vocational school. He boards because the school is very far from home. I was wondering if the mds would only pay his boarding costs to the school, or whether he would be able to use this funding to find his own accomodation? He has become really unhappy in the boarding house and I thought that we may be able to find him premises with a landlady. We can only look at this if his accomodation is payed for by his mds. Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

This is very interesting. I'm wondering on what grounds the person I heard of is basing their appeal. Personally I don't see the point because surely if you audition again, you will be seen by the same people, and if they said no the first time, what are the chances of them saying yes this time. Oh well, each to their own.

Has anyone on here ever appealed an audition decision before? I have heard of someone appealing, and would be interested to know how this works. Sounds a difficult thing to do without offending the panel and questioning their judgement. Also who do you appeal to, as surely if you appeal to the same people, the decision would be the same? Hope this makes sense. Anyone?

DD has been told not to run because of risk of hamstring injury. The school are very unhelpful and insist that in Scotland it is a legal requirement for students to do 2 hours of PE a week. Never mind she does much more than that in dancing! She injured her coxsix before in gymwork because they were to lazy to put out enough mats, and being tall, she fell off the end of one doing a roll. She couldn't dance for three weeks and missed an audition as well. I'm not prepared to allow her to injure herself any more and I know that they don't do proper warm-ups either. I will fight as hamstring injuries can put you out of dancing for ages. Sometimes they never heal properly and you always have a problem. The PE teacher says she is the best in the class, but I am just not prepared to jeopardise her future.

Think Hammond seems to be opposite, coz they're very big on performance and don't seem to mind too much about physique. Sorry, as you alluded to both schools before that, I thought you were making a general statement. I apologise if I offended you.

Sorry, don't think it's that clear cut. Certainly at Hammond know a few children with mds who are not exactly ballet physique. I think there are a lot of criteria and they look at them overall and although it's usually the best ballet dancers who get selected, sometimes they will give to children with talent in other areas but who are still very good in ballet. Sorry if this throws the cat amongst the pigeons. Sometimes I feel we don't know what they're thinking when they choose as it doesn't seem to follow a pattern.

I think tap is the exeption to this, as you don't turn out in tap. Sometimes ballet dancers have a problem remembering NOT to turn out when tapping. I know my ds sometimes has a problem with this as he has really good turnout. As far as gymnastics go, I think it helps flexibility, but different muscles are used and also they are encouraged not to turn out because of balance. My dd gave up for this reason as she suddenly started to struggle with turnout at ballet.

Don't lose hope. Some people will wait till the last minute to decide. I know it's hard to wait, but have heard numerous stories from kids in ds year and other years about mds becoming available literally the week before school starts. So, anytime from now until school starts really. Here's hoping for good news soon. x

My ds doesn't shave, my dd does. However she doesn't have a lot of body hair so she is lucky. He will have to start shaving his face eventually, but don't think he will be that keen to shave legs and underarms! I think most male dancers I have seen still have hairy legs and armpits. Btw while we're on embarrassing subjects, how do girls deal with monthlies when they are quite heavy and can't use tampons? Pads and leotards don't really go, do they?

I think often we're too quick to accept what one person says when it's only their opinion on the day. I think that a totally unbiased person would give valuable feedback and certainly this could be done by another teacher who doesn't know or teach the child. Have tried this myself and it's well worth doing.

Use Porselli all the time. They're quick and never had a problem. Even have bought ds stuff on there coz they do a male section.

I don't have a gripe with a particular school. I just couldn't find any info on any of the government websites, so I was just asking a simple question.

Yea. I was directed to the education link which is the formal government link and it doesn't mention ballet specifically. Thanks for all your replies though.

Wilderflower don't lose hope. Have known of at least one year 10 who has been awarded a mds in the past. You just never know. Good luck, am holding thumbs for you. Have sent you a pm.

Yes agree. The Hammond is lovely, but I think you have to be a specialist to be in the shows. My dd is the same as both yours but unfortunately hasn't been given the opportunity to have a place. I would phone them and speak to Mrs Durrant as she is head of dance but will put you on to anyone else who you need to speak to about drama, etc. Hope this helps.

As Hammond is not particularly a "ballet school" in the sense of the word as they offer drama and music courses too, I don't see that the wording is of any real indication. Tring is also not strictly a ballet school. Surely one would hope that mds' are given to children with talent for any form of dance or in fact performing arts as a whole? Maybe I'm wrong here, but really just wanted to know if anyone knew whether the government stipulated ballet or whether the schools just chose to go this route.

Just really wanted to know if this criteria is government stated or if the schools have decided to only give to ballet dancers.

I am aware that most dance schools give ballet students their mds' but was wondering if that was the schools choice or whether this is laid down by the government. On the education website it only states that mds' are for talented children in dance/music and I wondered if there were any guidlines saying only ballet dancers could get an mds? Thanks

Hi Does anyone know if when auditioning for and being successful for vocational school, mds awards are only given for ballet? I have tried to research this on both government and other websites and can only find reference to "talented children", not ballet dancers in particular. I was just wondering.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. Will try above suggestion, it sounds like a good plan of action. Her secondary school offers no singing or drama classes other than the curriculum. My daughter has one 45 min ballet, one 45 min combined tap and jazz and for 6 months of the year one 45 min drama. She sings in the national youth choir. This is all that is available for her and this is not likely to change as our town is dying and not getting bigger. We will just keep on and hope that sometime she gets her chance.

Thanks for all the suggestions. My dd is not at school in England so only finishes school at 18 unless she wants to leave with a pretty poor qualification. Unfortunately she is not going to get in then either with the quality of teaching we have access to. There are no dance physio's here either. She saw the dance school's physio when she did her audition and all she was told was that although she wasn't that flexible, she was tall with long legs and still growing and that it is harder for taller people to be as flexible as younger, smaller children.

I had only been told that she wasn't flexible enough, and this for me is not a good enough reason as the school she auditioned for is a school of the arts, not a ballet school and she could do well in musical theatre. This is the last time she can audition until she is 18 as she needs to finish school first and she is now nearly 13. I don't agree with changing schools in a GCSE year. As far as distance being all the same when they're boarding, I don't agree. I have a son in full time vocational education at one school, how would I try and reconcile dates and performances so we could see both? I also have a disabled older child at home and have to try and get care for her when we go to performances as she can't take loud music. If I was juggling two different schools, it would be very difficult. Also the distance to get to a school any further than we have tried would cost so much it would not be viable. I think if I thought the feedback was reasonable I would feel happier about her not being successful. As it is, it just seems to me an excuse. We were told performance was the main thing, and now they want her to be able to put her leg around her ear! It needs to be clear what they're looking for and at the moment it's very cloudy.

Yes you are right. I was wondering about appealing the result of an audition. We never seem to get too much feedback from these and I was wondering if one could appeal to put your case forward or not. Bankrupt mum, good luck to you and your dd. I would apply other places if she wants to go forward with this as have heard of other assessed out children from Elmhurst getting in other places.

I would think to the head of dance at the school.