Nicola H

the funding for vocational music / dance education for 11-16 and 16-19 level 3 ... DaDA beign the dance and drama awards fundign for the 16 -19 level 6 qualifications - Trinity diploma etc

were they taught properly ? was the reherasal and performance spaces appropriately specificed e.g. sprung floors, floor coverings in proper condition and kept correctly cleaned ? was there suitable OH provision in place is/ was there pressure from the Directors / Ballet Master(s) to keep working when struggling or when borderline injured , was there a culture within the company of 'pushing on through ' ? or was there policy and practice of resting people when they needed without fear of undue repercussions ? you mentioned carpal tunnel and typing - one ofthe 'safety six pack' of secondary legislation from the late 1990s is the display screen equipment regulaltions

this sounds like the 'classical' world catching up to something that Rock and pop noticed about 20 years ago and a hell of a lot of performed went to 'in ear monitors' i.e. in ear headphones with properly fitted earplugs surrounding the drivers ... as a Medic working in the pit those of us with communication radios wore 'flight line' headsets with dynamic noise cancelling mics or throat mics and those not carrying a radio wore ear plugs or normal ear defenders ... ditto the security / safety stewarding on the crowdline - as they are the absolute worst areas for sound pressure -

the Performing arts have a Physicist problem or perhaps the physicists have a performing arts problem, Prof B Cox, Dr (squared) B May, Ms ( soon to be Dr ) M Moore

that;s the numbers game at play ... how many girls are taking pre-primary up to gr 3/4 because it's the done thing vs those that carry on to take grades 5-8 and IF / Ele (depending on awarding body) and Int vs those who take the advanced VGEs

Not being fully au fait with the management and classification of examiners , are there certain examiners who are only allowed to assess 'lower' grades - i.e. a reduced number of examiners examining grades 6-8 and the VGEs ? The NGBs of various sports i have had past involvement with had had various classifications for both instructors/ teachers and assessors/ examiners which restricts certain trainers or assessors from leading delivering higher graded qualifications or from assessing them / providing assessments with the 'vocational' element. ( as under the older RYA system in the 1990s when one took the 'level 5' dinghy sailing assessment, if the craft used and the conditions were 'correct' ( there was a minimum windspeed iirc ) the assessor could also issue an exemption from the pre-entry assessment to the Instructor course. ( they also introduced an time + venue limited 'assistant instructor' qualification that only required the level 3 award to be completed - level 4 in that system was parallel to level 3 and was solely about racing techniques)

I find it extremely hard to the point of virtually impossible to justify holidays in term time ( one of the few exceptions i'd make there is where Serving military personnel on active deployments have their leave set by the CoC , or where a parent is terminally ill , there a problably others which count as exceptional but that is a decision for head teachers and governing bodies informed by any case law formulated ) legislating against demand management is extremely hard to do , and likely may just result in either scams to get round the legislation on behalf of the tour operators or them simply raising prices to the peak level all season , Ironically the dogged and dogmatic insistence of everywhere in the UK apart from Scotland and Leicestershire ( who tend to finish at the end of june have all of july off and go back in mid august - up to 2 weeks before the August BH ) in having the summer holidays as all of August with most of the last week of July and first week of September doesn't help. the English exam periods are by and large over by the end of June. There;s also stuff like the 5 term years that get proposed with equally spread equal length holidays between them rather than the long summer holiday which is an artefact of c19th manual / horse drawn farming ... the floating Easter doesn't help things but arguably you avoid that by having Easter as long weekend where ever it falls irrespective of the term dates ( as Easter can fall on any date between 22nd March and 25th April )

great minds think alike but fools seldom differ it appears - i edited my reply saying the link Anna originally posted didn't parse/ resolve or whatever word the html gurus use this week posting the link obtained by searching for ' RAD exam letter school'

that link doesn't parse is it this letter dated sept 2016 from Dr McBirnie ? http://www.jacquiison.co.uk/pdf/School-Absence-Letter-England.pdf

Exactly , there are a number of codings that should/ could be used in these situations depending on the Head / Governing Body / Ofsted interpretation of the the approvals for 'off site education' especially coding that session of the schooling as 'B' educated off site - not sure how much input LAs have on this any more given how few schools especially Secondary schools are under the dead hand of county hall . the relevant guidance from the Dept for Education is this document https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/564599/school_attendance.pdf

over the top , exaggerated

say 'darn coyote ' in an OTT southern accent ... say it out loud ...

Absolutely nothing to do with the management of the school and it;s funding and everything to do with the attitudes displayed by certain groups within the population towards not being able to take their children out of school during term time for their annual dose of increased skin cancer risk because it;s cheaper .in term time . The kind of people who kick off because a child is given authorised absence for dance / music / sports training or competion as they can;t see the difference ...

and their treatment of the LGBTQ community and innumerable other offensive things the paper and it;s alumni such a Piers Morgan have done.

GIGO / PEBKAC

in southern US accents yes !

Physio or a sports medicine doc decent Osteopath might well be able to confirm / deny a diagnosis it;s not core Osteo stuff ... at least the dreded chiroquack word hasn;t been mentioned

This i where / why the dance focused acro syllabuses and things like PBT have come around ... also notable the move that 'disco' / 'freestyle' and cheer have had away from other forms of dance

possibly because the school doesn't have a problem with chavvy but with means / nouveau riche parents who want to break the rules solely for hoildays ... ( or even chavvy without means thanks to the super soaraway Scum and the 10 pound holiday promotion )

The fundamental problem here , as usual, is that schools are not looking at using the correct coding for the situation and/or lack in glandular fortitude to tell those who whinge over other's legit absences being authorised. If dance / music / drama exams are being refused / blocked . recorded as unauthorised yet sporting representation with county or professional team academies is being passed there is the possibility of Equality Act actions as the policy is indirectly discriminating on the basis of sex ( much as this may be seen as stereotyping )

So a real Northern Fest with sky arts showing Casanova for the grown ups as well...

Leanne is a total sweetie , i've not been fitted for pointes by her but we have spoken at length aobut our mutual passions

good to see, interesting to see they've gone for an external choreographer as previous 'small ballets for small people' have been choreographed in house , but that may represent the situation at the particular time for the various people involved

i suspect that is what pictures was hinting at ... there are going to be a small number of lucky ( because anyone who gets to finals is damn good - the quality line is not generally the issue especially with girls ) people who are faced with 2 funded offers ... which means for their 'rejected' offer , it all moves up

Tradition and ritual are powerful in many settings also the structure and format of class doesn't necessarily reflect what is needed as dr Dance alludes to above. also consider the 1 hour class vs the 90 minute class ... and the barre being the same in both all too often ...