AllAboutTheJourney

Thanks for your candour both - it's much appreciated. Its good to be reminded/made aware of things to look out for (and, as ever, that the posts one sees on SM aren't always what they seem).

I hope your DD enjoys uni @joyofdance and that in time it will feel like its been worth it. I've said before on this forum that it is extremely helpful for those of us with younger children to hear both the good and the bad about dance training from those of you who have gone further down the path already. Can I ask something - and this is in no way intended to dismiss or belittle the issues or experiences mentioned above... For those of you whose children have had negative experiences/feel 'broken' in some way - when did it start to change? When did those kinds of issues arise? Was it at a certain school or a type of school or at a certain age etc? I think for us we are still in what is perhaps a lucky position where we haven't encountered - yet - toxic behaviours/an ultra competitive environment/any form of mentally inappropriate or damaging teaching. Our dance school is very nurturing, the associates programme we have experience of is excellent. I can see (on social media) that there are certain dance schools I would never consider sending my children to but we have no reason to come across them. At the moment, dance is an entirely happy thing (which I am very grateful for). I guess I am hoping to learn if there is a common age/time/level of training when people felt it all changed or whether that is very much down to individual circumstances. Please feel free to PM if you'd rather - I appreciate the dance world is very small but as I've said before it's very helpful for those of us with younger children to hear from more experienced dance parents.

It seems slightly quicker now they're into it, results wise I mean. Hopefully if Birmingham is out that means you've heard about Leeds too @SJBallet

Yes I agree - as far as I’ve heard all London y7 results are out so hopefully it’s maybe in a junk folder or similar?

Well done @balletboy8 to your DS and to @MissEmily 's pupil!

I think for lower school all boys go straight to finals after the preliminaries, but there is a video semi final for all students for upper school.

Thank you - semis are in Bath, Manchester or London

We did, thank you! Through to semis 😀

Newcastle results came out this morning - so it’s definitely a staggered process for the first round this year 🙂

Nothing out as yet 🙂

Good luck to her! My own view would be not to wear the JA uniform - many JA's will be wearing it for the first Y7 Mids/WL audition but I think it would look confusing if northing else to wear it for a y8 Mids audition. It will likely also make her look younger than she is? I'd just get her to wear a leotard she loves and feels good in.

Many of the associates teachers have their own schools - ours certainly does.

Pointe shoes is so exciting - how lovely! My DD is waiting to be told if/when she can go on pointe - she can't wait... Good luck to your DD too x

That's such a tough one @SJBallet - I totally get what you mean about the abstract thought becoming more of a reality. Hopefully she can enjoy the process as you say and any big decisions are a while off yet (even though it may not seem like that to her). Does she do any other styles of dance/comps/shows anything like that to make it less about 'the ballet'? We have a few other things going on just now which will hopefully be a good distraction from the audition side of things - and also from any rejection emails which may arrive (I hope anyway!)

Well that's the WL auditions kicked off - good luck to everyone who is applying for the vocational schools this year. I don't imagine we're the only people who are going in to this process with mixed emotions - especially given the many recent (helpful) posts on this forum about the negative aspects of the vocational school training experience - but at least we are going in to it with open eyes, somewhat educated and informed. From the kids' point of view, however, it's an exciting time. I hope they all enjoy the process, whatever the outcome.

Absolutely - we're in two minds about the whole thing anyway, trying to be led by DD but only if we've done a lot of research and feel fully aware of the potential positives and negatives. This forum has already been invaluable for that so thank you.

Thanks that's really good to hear - and well done to her! I am determined not to get carried away by the 'name' and to find out as much as we would expect to know from any high school we were considering for our children (while appreciating this is all a long shot of course!) But there's no point, in my mind, in letting DD even apply if we wouldn't be happy letting her take up a place if it miraculously happened to be offered.

Thanks @Dizzyballetmum - hopefully they might do that again this year. We’ve got a lot of questions about the academics etc which it feels like an open day/tour might help with.

Does anyone know if WL generally has an open day for prospective applicants and, if so, roughly when in the year it is? I appreciate it was all online last year (and may be again I suppose) but I wondered what had generally happened in the past. Thanks.

I think every centre is being done a bit differently - we haven't received any further instructions re. the equipment and I imagine will be told if we need to buy anything on the first day. We also didn't have a zoom (though I know some other centres have) but we have been told to come in at the start of the first class (same as a few years ago) so I guess it's up to each teacher/venue how they are handling the welcome/info bits and pieces.

Thanks for starting a thread. We are not yet decided about what to do this year - lots to think about! Am I right in thinking that for RBS, the initial application/audition process is the same for both full time training and Mid Associates? Can anyone confirm?

I thought it might be worth linking to this thread in case any of the new JA parents have any general questions. It was started a couple of years ago (and some things may have changed due to Covid of course) but could still be useful if anyone wants any advice on uniform/when to expect more information etc...

A huge well done to everyone - it’s all good experience no matter what the result. They’ve all done so well. And well done to all of us for the rearranging of furniture, the filming, the uploading, the refreshing and the waiting! I hope for those who are trying again next year that your children get to experience an in-person audition 🙂 DS has got a Yes for Year 4 🙂

No problem - it's been a long wait but hopefully should be quite soon now! I have a DD who is a JA but this is DS's first time applying too...

Yes you will get an email either way 🙂