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FredF

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  1. Sorry Peanut68, I was not saying for any other reason than, the standard of the dance was just as good as the top 3, given the school size and financial funds in comparison. Parents and children may overlook schools like Moorland as it is not as well known as the others. When we were looking at schools there were only 3 offered at the time, and it's positive that there are other schools that can produce such high standards, which is brilliant to see. I do agree with you and would love to see less on the big 3 and more on other schools in the future, unfortunately in life there are always bench marks to achieve and be compared to...
  2. I also watched the show which was truly inspiring. The standard of dance from a relatively small (compared to the big 3) school was extremely high. The children's expressions and dance passion and sheer love of ballet was clearly visible. The teaching staff must be so proud of their students. Anyone thinking of ballet training should certainly add this school to their audition list.
  3. And one ex student has made the finals after leaving the school?
  4. With the New York Youth America Grand Prix finals upcoming next week, it’s good to see a UK boy in the male soloist finals. Joshua Fickling (15) is competing in the senior men’s soloist finals which is a brilliant opportunity, he is a student of Moorland International Ballet Academy. Good luck to him, and any other UK students who may be dancing.
  5. As I said my figures are unconfirmed (some years are close to that number), and I agree on your points. It was more of a point of if there was anyway in comparison between schools. If one school had a retention percentage much higher and still produced good dancers than another would this be a better school? WL does have a advantage as a "Brand Name" but its a shame there is not a independent process to check that the standard is deserved. A proper independent league table of dance schools may make interesting reading! A OFSTEAD of the dance schools would help a lot of people and probably schools who don't have huge financial backing but do have great teachers and passion.
  6. So based on (unconfirmed and maths not my greatest subject) is this a fair comment? In the girls if there are approx 18 students and from that about 4-5 have made it to Upper School that's about a 27% chance of making the cut. From these 4-5 I think only 2 have been there since Y7 which makes only 11% chance of your DC making the cut. I wonder how this compares to the other schools which have Upper Schools? If you are a new parent entering y7 with this information would you still send you DC to this school knowing the limited progression rate or would you opt for a school that you know your DC would have a better chance of going through the school years?
  7. I agree with you KeepDancing!! and on the "something else".... So today I have my “cynical” hat on. I would probably say it comes down to money and the brand name of the Royal Ballet School. Say for example if your child was lucky to be offered a place for y7 at WL, Elmhurst & Tring Park (the assumed top 3 vocational schools in the UK) and as parents you come from a non ballet background which school would you send your child to? I would imagine at 9/10 would choose WL due to the brand name of the Royal Ballet School being regarded as the best in the world. However is it? Clearly the Upper School is fabulous and does feed into the company but these students have been cherry picked from all over the world at the age of 16 to go into Upper School and have not necessarily come from WL which has been discussed in previous posts. Question: does this make WL irrelevant as part of the Royal Ballet company structure/group? Is it just acting as funding for whole group but benefits Upper School students most. Could it survive or have the same reputation if it was called “Richmond Ballet School”? Question, if you could somehow compare just the UK lower schools (WL, Elmhurst, Tring…) for students entering y7 and remaining to their upper schools who would come out on top? Question: On the funding side of things, if there was no grants (MDS) to send your children to ballet schools and you had to make the decision and fund yourself, looking at the stats (especially WL) of only a very small margin making it through the school would you choose to send your child to that school? Which then raises the question that does the school deserve to get funded places? Maybe this would be good for another topic on how schools are awarded MDS places, how they are monitored to make sure the funding is used to benefit the children and not other aspects of the school. I also would be interested to know, if this just a UK thing, how this compares to schools for example in Paris or America do they have more success in students starting at the very beginning going through to the company? I will now remove my “cynical” hat
  8. Sorry whats a "MA", not up to date on all these abbreviations?
  9. So if this is the case, does that mean that White Lodge is failing in its teaching of these students in the lower school, not being able to get them to the required level compared to international schools?
  10. Totally agree with ballet4taxi, and I think these schools forget that, they are a school not a company, and need to teach and encourage these children.
  11. Yes we have had the same letter for the yr10 boys. He is going to do it for experience and hope a place may become available! However how long could the waiting list be if they were offered?
  12. Does anyone have any first hand experience of Brussels International Ballet School? Does anyone know of any UK students who have recently been there or are there currently, just looking at options for DC (yr 10) starting this September for the full time course. Any information would be really helpful. Thanks. https://www.brusselsintballet.org
  13. Hi, Does anyone have any thoughts / experience on full time ballet training at Moorland school, it has some mentions on this forum but they do seem to be only about summer school courses or are a few years old. I know it’s a small school but can it train to the standard as Elmhurst or Tring ? Thanks
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