prancerdancer

Hello River - check out the credentials for the ballet teacher if your children decide they like their dancing more than just a once a week hobby, if the teacher isn't qualified and you aren't, then you will not know what you are paying for. As for Irish, then just soft shoes with Irish socks or bare feet and they will move on to heavies, then you will need shoes, go on eBay or ask around as with tap shoes you want second hand soft leather etc so that they make a better quality noise. With feet growing as fast as they do it's hard work for a child to break in their heavies. Then they wear shorts and t shirts some schools have a uniform but most children that take their Irish seriously dance most days so it's just cycling shorts and t shirt. In Irish the children learn by doing, so it's great for all activists as there are only a few words for steps as in "cut" "hop" "out" and the rest is repetition and counting. You will see a huge difference in your children's ability to focus and their reading and maths. As with ballet don't get caught up in festivals or feis' unless you are willing to change the families financial budget as it is very, very expensive and time consuming. I always expect my child to say thank you for her dancing so she appreciates that dance classes are special and not a right. It works for us.

If it hurts first thing in the morning then I suggest your arch is collapsing, pop in to a scholl shop and they will explain and once you wear a support in your shoe or Birkenstocks it will go.

Always tell your DC if you don't like your body wait a minute cos it will change.

Ummmm Cornish princess my deposit has not been returned. A quick question,if a company owes you money and that company goes bankrupt how do you find out they have filed bankruptcy ? Do they put a notice of the door of the premises and an answer machine on, Is that it? Or is there a web site that announces all the bankruptcies in the country?

Thinking of the worse scenario - if any person has reason to suspect the worse of any person who is in a position of trust with children, in UK then they can go to any police station in UK and ask under Sarah's Law ( CSOD) for disclosure. The police will research the individual in question and will police the risk and share their safeguarding concerns with Children's Social Services, CYPS. The person asking may not get disclosure if their child is not at risk anymore ( ie removed from the school) but other parents might so they can make an informed decision about their child. For example if your child says teacher shouted and a child cried, a parent can go to police and report the teacher under Sarah's law, if the teacher is not known to UK police, a record of your Every Child Matters ECM concern is created and the matter closed but if teacher is known for violence or worse (not necessarily convicted) then a police officer of Inspector rank or above may chose to disclose the 'bad character evidence' in order to safeguard future children. The police will inform the person accused I think which could act as a preventative strategy. This whole area of the law is not being tested because of lack of training and funding and services failing to identify risk as there is no money to do anything about it.

They only check the UK fingerprint data base to see if you are a convicted sex offender in the UK or declared especially dangerous by the police. So paedophiles, sex offenders child traffickers and adults that abuse children emotionally or physically whose fingerprints are not on record can still get through the current system.

It appears to me reading through this thread that every parent of an auditioning child needs to investigate the place they are sending their child to. If Ofsted inspects the school you would read the Ofsted reports, so if Ofsted don't I would think that it is necessary to establish who does and contact them directly. If no one over sees the school and the local Education authority state categorically that they are not aware of the school, then your child is going to a 'company' not a school or a college. You must then pick up the phone and ring trading standards and ask for advice and explain that you thought they were a school, you know under 18 s must attend further education so why are they not inspected by any body. If every parent does this check then the con artistes like this chap can't hide behind the logo of an establishment they are not accredited to. Scary but necessary before more children get hurt and more parents become victims of fraud. I've rung trading standards and they were very informatative so I hope other people do the same

There are different levels of checks but basically it's to see if the person interacting with children ( under 18) are convicted of a criminal offence in UK. It's now changed its name but use to mean criminal records bureau.

Thank you Hull that's very kind of you, I think if the forum can guide parents to make a more 'informed decisions' then that's got to be in the best interests of the students and after all that's what it is all about our children and their future

Imagine paying fees for a school or college only to discover that it's not a school or college as happened with these parents ( victims) then only Trading Standards prosecute the con man and you as parents then get told you shouldn't have received your child benefit for two years because your child wasn't in further education. How dreadful poor parents, poor students and what's been learnt from their experience ! Makes you wonder who is actually doing the CRB checks on teachers qualified or not ?

This is where I get very confused - if English law has been changed so every 16 and 17 year old MUST still receive education until their 18 th birthday surely a school or college or company must follow the law. Maths and English have to be offered to any student who may not have achieved a GCSE pass in these subjects or the equivalent of and the rest must still receive an education up to 20% of the week. There appears to be no one checking on this, no one saying they are the authority making sure all under 18's receive further education yet parents still receive child benefit because the govt says they are still in education. I think Ofsted or the Independent school authority should oversee every school college or company in England who claim to be providing further education or have 16 or 17 year olds working for them.

i think the important word is 'accredited' as opposed to recognised.

It appears that when doing your research for vocational ballet schools you need to check which governing body your schools of choice are accredited by If you go on the CDET.org.uk web site and all the schools accredited by CDET are listed in alphabetical order, if your school is not on the list check to see if it is one of the 8 Conservatoires if not then it might be governed by the Education authority such as RBS upper school, Ofsted The CDET logo to look out for is Aqua colour - the royal blue logo is just for after school classes nothing to do with Vocational ballet schools

Thank you Janet

I was trying to copy over some of the more pertinent points that the ISTD make in their statement in regards to this chap but I don't know how you do it. It would be great to know that all the UK professional bodies have put in to place measures to help stop it from happening again. It' appears that parents may contact CDET direct for advice, I had never heard of anyone doing that before.

Two years of the students life training for a dance qualification the teacher wasn't qualified to award. The cost to the parents for the fees and accommodation is frightening. I guess if a dance teacher is qualified their credentials are always included on the web site but parents don't always know before September which dance teachers their child will be getting or whether their assessment of your child will be worth the paper it's written on.

Interesting piece in the July Dancing Times - a chap called Alan Justice (unfortunate surname ) was given a 12 month suspended prison sentence for offering a product he couldn't deliver. He took fees for his dance school called HJA Performing Arts College by making false claims on the college website and by using misleading logo's. Victims of his scam were advised to check to see if their schools are accredited to the correct authorities like the Council for Dance Education and Training CDET.

Mine stayed in premier inn in Birmingham city centre so walking to the dance studios was easy.