Penguinboysmum

Hi Does anyone have a dc currently attending York scholars, would you recommend It? I understand there has been a lot of change so am looking for reassurance that it is still a good scholars scheme. DS is very ballet focussed and I see they only do 1hr of ballet with another hour each of Jazz and Contemporary. Is the ballet training worth it? DS could have an extra hour at his current school. Thanks

Does anyone know if any summer schools are still accepting applications? Elmhurst states apply by 9th March to secure discount but no mention of any other closing date. DS isn't old enough for Northern Ballet CAT summer school as he's only 11.

Hi I am wondering how much studio time DC have each week and whether all are in associates/scholar's schemes? DS (11) currently dances at a BBO school and does 1.5hours Grade ballet plus 1 hour of boys ballet a week, plus 2 hours of Jazz/Modern and 1 hour of tap each week. He also attends BBO Scholars for 3 hours of ballet once a month and attends the Scholar's intensive weekend and will be attending Dance Days next week. After hearing about his unsuccessful final audition for Yr 7 at Elmhurst DS's ballet teacher has offered more ballet, but I don't know in what capacity - ideally she would put him in the class above and below him as she does this with some students - but I suspect after he does his grade 3 exam at the end of April they will begin working on a show and standard grade classes are put aside until after the show which will likely be in October. I don't know if this is enough if he is hoping to re-audition next year. His dance teacher is happy for him to audition for RBS associates and BBO scholars and I think she will support YDS but she has had students attend NB in the past and doesn't recommend it. She also doesn't like pushing them too much at this age as in her 50years of teaching she says she's seen to many children burn out and lose their love for dance. I cannot fault the standard of teaching, he gained a very high distinction in his last exam and most students in her school achieve at least a high-merit and I know she is highly thought of within the BBO but is what he is doing enough?

Sorry to hear about your DS, our DS is in the same position. He's dealing with it well and looking forward to continuing at his current dance school but some Feedback would be great so we know what to work on for next year. It categorically states no further correspondence though so I guess we'll never know. We are so proud of him making it to finals on his first audition too. Did he just audition for Elmhurst? We were late to the audition process so had missed the other 3. Am wondering if there is anything else we could look at for September but I fear we are too late now. Thankfully he has his BBO scholars classes and his dance teacher has offered to increase his ballet time so hopefully that will all help towards trying again next year. Good luck to your DS in his future endeavours.

Sadly DS had a no letter for Elmhurst. He's upset at the moment but has already said he'll keep trying. We've told him it's just not his time yet.

Postman has been here too and no Elmhurst letter so another wait...

Does anyone know how the results come out for Elmhurst finals? Email or post? I was half-way back up the M1 before I remembered I was going to ask someone. We had letters inviting to finals so I am assuming it will be letters again. Thanks x

Thankfully he wasn't down for long. He woke up absolutely fine on Sunday so attended his Scholar's class and then practised again after school tonight. He'll have an enforced night off tomorrow though as we'll be driving down to Birmingham and it will be pretty much straight to bed when we get there! I wondered about feedback too. I've seen mentions of feedback from WL finals but does anyone know if you can get feedback from Elmhurst? I am sure this is more stressful for the parents than it is DC, DS just loves to dance whenever/wherever he can. Hope your DS has a great day tomorrow x

Thanks. I suspect I'm jumping the gun with slapped cheek (over thinking again), I teach reception which is where our cases have been and he's in another building so less likely to have contracted it. It's more likely the cold his sister has had and he seems to be much brighter this afternoon so looking promising. He had flu before his preliminary audition and did ok so fingers crossed.

Argh, DS has come down with a virus and has his Elmhurst final on Wednesday. He's not really 'ill' but wiped out with a low grade fever - we've had slapped cheek doing the rounds at school so I suspect it will turn out to be that in the following days. Anyway this close to the audition he is panicking because he doesn't was to lose conditioning and seize up. I have no real knowledge of the ballet world. We kept him off his tap and jazz class today so he could rest, but he has his ballet scholars' class tomorrow. Should I send him? I think he should go as it's the last 'lesson' he'll have before his audition and he'll have a couple of days to recover, but equally don't want him to overdo it and then struggle at his audition. What sort of preparation should he be doing this close to the audition? All I get from his ballet teacher is "practise, practise, practise" and points he needs to remember. He's been doing 1-2 hours a day up to now of stretches, conditioning and dancing. I suspect I may be overthinking this, normally he just dances through stuff but this audition means so much to him I want to give him the correct advice. Thanks in advance x

Hi Happymum, congrats to your DS. Thanks for that information it's reassuring. He's going for the experience and has already said if he's not successful this year he'll be better prepared for next year's round of auditions.

Hi After attending an Elmhurst LS audition in January just to see what it was like, DS is now preparing for the Final auditions on 14th March. We're very new to this and wondered if anyone knows roughly how many children get callbacks/attend finals? Also what is involved in the "parent/candidate discussion" and orthopaedic assessment. He's a BBO scholar and loved Elmhurst when he danced there as part of Scholar's weekend which prompted us to apply. Any pearls of wisdom gratefully received, thanks...