oliviaT

5 hours ago, balletbean said:

It will be interesting to see if NBS are still offered the same amount of DaDa’s as they do now or will this be reduced in hope that prospective pupils are eligible for the degree and therefore a Student Loan. What I don’t understand but happy for someone to educate me is that at other colleges where they offer both a student on the degree course shares the same classes as another on the Diploma course even though there’s a significant difference in the fees. 

My daughter is at a college that teaches the diploma and degree classes together for all practical lessons (dance, acting etc) but they have separate academic modules. 

Brilliant news. 
Congratulations to your daughter. 
You can relax a bit now! 

My daughter’s offers last year were still conditional on her A level results. They still make an offer of a certain number of ucas points. 
 

She also got her offers directly from the uni / college before her ucas updated. 
 

Hope to don’t have too much longer to wait and good luck. 

3 hours ago, Kendie76 said:

No they didn’t 🤦🏻‍♀️ But I’ve searched this forum lol and think it’s 4 days and something about a black envelope?  Interview was amazing and they did say loads of lovely things so my daughter so I’m leaning towards a positive but you never know do you. Honestly this is the most nerve wracking part 

Having gone through all this last year I would say that out of all the auditions,  Wilkes gave the most away in their interview! Almost to the point where you could predict the outcome. However I think it’s better to try not to guess (easier said than done I know!) - if she doesn’t get a place for any reason then hopefully she can still use the positive feedback to give her a boost for the rest of the auditions.

The offer letter comes in an A4 black envelope which is really nicely presented. It didn’t take long last year from memory. 

10 hours ago, Kendie76 said:

Yeah she’s done competitions etc and danced since she was 2. I will say she does look young for her age so maybe it’s that to be honest. She has performers next week, addict on the 16th feb and trinity Laban when they send a date 

I think addict seems to be a good choice for someone whose main strength is dance - especially if they want to focus mainly on that rather than MT.  My daughter’s teachers see it as a good up and coming school. Because it’s not quite as well known as urdang, performers etc it does seem to be a little bit easier to get in to but still of a good standard. Obviously that’s just based on personal experience of my daughter and her friends. Good luck for the rest of her auditions. 

I’m not on NAPM anymore - I can read it but can’t remember my password! - but I managed to join last year by sending them a message through their Facebook page. Might be worth a try 

I have a daughter in the first year of an MT degree. 

If she definitely wants to do an MT course but with strong ballet training then Laine and Bird would both fit that well. 

For the person who asked about funding, although the degree courses are eligible for student finance some of the courses do charge extras eg to cover head shots or individual singing lessons - Bird and Wilkes do this, it’s not 1000s but worth checking. Also some (private) degree courses do not offer full student finance so be aware of that too. 
 

My daughter knows people at most of these places. They are all slightly different. If you are in a position where you have a choice, I think the key is to find the one that suits them best. They all seem to cover more or less the same things but with a different emphasis - eg some are more commercial heavy, some focus more on ballet technique etc 


 

When I first started reading this forum I began to think it was the norm to attend from age 16 (whether that was for diploma or degree courses). 
 

Then I realised it was only the norm for ballet. 
 

For musical theatre it’s much more common to start at 18 - although there are some 16 year olds on the diploma courses it’s our experience that they seem to be in the minority. 
 

And for straight drama it seems that many are even older than 18 and some apply several times before being accepted. 
 

I think it really depends on your child’s talents and wishes. But I personally felt much better when I realised it was far from essential to move away from home at 16 years old. 

Having a daughter who has just gone through this process it is very frustrating! 

We had to tell her not to audition as we didn’t want to get her hopes up when we knew we couldn’t afford it. 
You can get the full student loan for fees along with the means tested maintenance loan from urdang, bird and performers if you want to consider other options, 

I don’t understand this if I’m being honest. 
 

could you explain more what the concern is? Who is it alienating? (Genuine question to help with understanding). 

5 hours ago, Confusedmum said:

Thank you for the replies. Lots of things for us to take on board.

SissonneDouble I think I understand what you are saying about associates. Since some of the girls have got into them we have been looking around and noticed they appear to vary quite a bit. One girl is doing one that focuses on ballet, I think they said 1.5 hour session and sessions are once a month and then another genre for 1.5 hours. One of the others is one where they bring different teachers in each month to teach a routine and another is doing a different associate scheme every Sunday.

At the moment associates wouldn't be something we can afford due to her dads business suffering quite a bit these last 12 months but hopefully things will improve to allow us to apply to some next year.

2dancersmum, looking at the syllabuses you quote I've realised our syllabus isn't there. She is at a dance school who follow the UKA exams.

She's only been doing contemporary 6 months. During lockdown a lot of the older girls didn't enjoy zoom classes so the teacher allowed some of the younger one's to join and and continue with it when the studio reopened. 

AnnaC, will definitely look at CATS; DD's already said she wants to take GCSE dance but will recommend business studies as well.

We will also look at the dance timetable to see if we could attend another ballet class. If we couldn't; do students sometimes attend other studios for additional training?

OliviaT what type of associates scheme did your daughter do? Thank you for your last comment; I think this will be a very valuable comment to show DD because I know one girl who she chats to quite a lot told her she really should be doing X,Y,Z by now and I think this is why DD started to panic she will be left behind.

Just doing some thinking; is it better for example to do less styles but spend more hours doing those styles than doing every style you can fit in but less time doing each one?

 

 

 

Hi my daughter did two local, well respected associate schemes over the years (one at a time).
She was never going to be royal ballet material but that doesn’t mean she can’t have a career in dance of some sort. 
I would suggest asking around locally and hopefully she has a supportive teacher who you can ask as well. 
We are more familiar with what’s available in the north. So for example KS dance and ballet boost are places you could look at. But I’m sure you will find something similar if they are no good for you geographically - what my daughter needed was a supportive class of a good standard but without the pressure to be the very best of the best! 
Some places also offer taster days in the school holidays which is a cost effective way of letting her try something new without the financial commitment. We sometimes bought tickets to a dance convention or a short course as a birthday / Christmas present just for a fun day out. 

My daughter is 18 and her long term aim is to own her own dance studio. 
She is going to study for a degree in musical theatre in September. She wants to dance professionally for a couple of years and then teach but will go straight into teaching if necessary.  She has done 2 associate schemes over the last few years and has just finished her A level dance and drama along with another unrelated A level. 
 

I would disagree that associates and wider training aren’t beneficial to trainee dance teachers. Although they are not essential they enable the dancer to see a variety of good (and sometimes poor) training as well as seeing lots of different choreography. 
 

She has put a lot of thought into what type of teacher she wants to be and what she wants her dance school to offer. She has picked up lots of ideas by attending associates and summer schools and really enjoyed these. 
 

What I would say though is that there is no pressure to apply for elite schemes. You have the freedom to look at what your daughter will enjoy and which schemes suit her best. There are lots of good quality smaller associate schemes or holiday schemes that you can research and make a decision based on her goals and ambitions. She’s only young so she has plenty of time to decide what she wants to do and explore her options x 

(Also edited to add try not to get drawn into the competition between students - who is doing the most hours, doing the best associate schemes, in the highest grade, spending the most money etc! We made this mistake briefly and it really isn’t worth it. Focus on what will be beneficial in helping your daughter meet her own goals rather than what other people are doing) 

Hi my daughter is just finishing performing arts 6th form. They are all leaving with 3 a levels or equivalent.

 
There is quite a long list of what people in her year group are going on to do: 

Musical theatre degrees 

Contemporary dance degrees 

Primary education 

Drama degrees 

Drama with teaching 

Dance school teacher training 

A couple are going straight into employment / starting apprenticeships

Working with youth groups / children’s sports 

Costume design 

Choreography 

Stage management 

Some have moved away from a dance focus altogether and have successfully applied for other things. Some have continued to have an interest in dance but moved away from the performance element and chosen a different route. 

6 hours ago, Legseleven said:

That is extremely strange about IDTA allowing you to teach all genres when you have only qualified in one! I can’t imagine why that is the case. It could potentially be quite dangerous I would think?

I believe it’s because they have ‘core subjects’ so much of the training overlaps. It’s not a route we went down in the end as my daughter has always done ISTD syllabus work so it made more sense to continue this with teacher training. 

I hope someone with more experience may see this to clarify but I’ve just found my email communication with them to confirm this is definitely what I was told (the email is from 2018) 

Hi just a couple of comments - please do check though that these are accurate as things change so quickly. 
 

ISTD - ballet, tap and modern are taught separately. You can do one at a time or all three together if you wish. 
 

If you don’t have intermediate exams then you can do them as a module as part of your DDE. 
 

You can enter children for exams in the genre you have qualified in - so you don’t have to do all 3 to start teaching. 
 

IDTA - you can enter children for exams in any genre even if you only qualify in one. This really surprised me to be honest but I checked it with them directly (two years ago so may have changed). 
 

If your daughter is happy to start these alongside her btec and stay at home then it’s definitely possible as you can study at your own pace on weekends / evenings. 
 

If she would like to go away to study then I would agree to look at Prestons or KS dance for a course with a teaching focus alongside dance and performing experience. 

If you look on the dada chart there are some income brackets where you will get a contribution for living expenses. 
As you move up the income brackets it quickly reduces to nothing at all so accommodation has to be self funded. 
We haven’t found any way round it unfortunately and for this reason my daughter could only apply for degree level courses. 

We do know of someone last year who was offered additional funding directly from the college but I don’t think this is common. 

2 hours ago, Milzmam said:

Do they go straight from GCSE to Level 6 Trinity Diploma?  Is that not a big jump from GCSE to almost degree level, especially if studying for A Level alongside??  It is all so confusing, there seems to be so many courses out there for 16 years olds which vary from place to place and also vary in cost!  Is it better to do BTEC Extended diploma and then onto degree or try to go straight onto Trinity Diploma?? My brain hurts thinking about it all and so pleased we have started looking early.  Thank you in advance for any information xx

Just my personal opinion but with MT there is really no need to go from GCSE to level 6 diploma unless you are completely  certain that’s what you want to do. 

Something that often gets overlooked is that the whole uni experience at 16 will be very different to those going at 18 (social life and learning to live independently). 

Hi just to add that the foundation courses don’t always open up the possibility of a degree if started at age 16. 
 

My daughter’s friend did a foundation course at a well know musical theatre college at age 16 instead of A levels. She had a very good experience of the course itself but she didn’t get any ucas points from it so she then went on to do a level 6 diploma rather than a degree - which meant she couldn’t access student finance. 

We had to rule out a foundation instead of A levels for this reason. 
 
I believe some universities offer a foundation year in some subjects that are linked to a degree covered by student finance so it can be quite confusing. 
 

Hi, I can’t answer your specific question but I hope this perspective might help. 
My daughter has known for quite some time that the does not have the potential to be a ballet dancer. She loves ballet and spent a long time feeling frustrated and upset that even though she worked really hard she was not as good as some of her friends. 
A couple of years ago she found another style of dance that she loved. She still does lots of ballet but also now has another focus that has made her feel better about her potential and ability. 
She’s now at college doing her A levels and she has a future plan to be a dance teacher. 
If you ask her about what she wants to do she doesn’t just say ‘be a dance teacher’. She can tell you what type of studio she wants to run, whether she wants to do competitions, what exam board she wants to follow. She has researched it all and put a lot of thought into it. 
Who knows what will happen in the future but the point I’m making is that she’s found something she believes she can be good at without moving away from her love of ballet (and dance in general). 
If I think back to when she was in year 6, knowing what we know now, I would  still support her because I knew it was what she wanted to do. 

Hi I have 2 children - one in school and one in college. They couldn’t have had a more different experience. 
Youngest has had very little support. Work is set online but not handed in. They have been asked to mark it themselves wherever possible. Lack of feedback  unfortunately can mean lack of motivation for the child. Very little teacher contact. 

Eldest is in college doing a combination of Btec and A levels. A level work is set online, handed in and marked. 
Btec practical is taught by live online dance and drama lessons. 
Everyone without a laptop was given one to borrow on the day they were sent home. Anyone with a lack of space, difficult home life or other such issues has been allowed to go into college. Parent / teacher communication has been excellent.

Teachers are certainly facing huge challenges and it can’t be easy but I just thought I would share an example of how they have made it work with a lot of determination and being proactive. 

Planet dance sells gaynor minden and is open for home delivery. I ordered a leotard from them last week and received it within a few days. 

8 hours ago, Kate_N said:

Have you used the UCAS website to search? It may help.

I never even thought to do that! Thank you 

Thank you all for your advice, you have been really helpful. 
 

Pups mum - LSC is definitely somewhere she would consider if finances were not a barrier but unfortunately it won’t be possible. I don’t want her to audition anywhere unless we can somehow make it work financially  

GSA - we haven’t looked at this. She isn’t a singer so we ruled it out but I will have a proper look (also heard it was virtually impossible to get into!) 

2 minutes ago, Harwel said:

Please be careful as some colleges, though their courses are funded by degree loans also have top up fees. Urdang is one such college.  The degree loan covers 2 terms, if the student wishes to do the 3rd term (show term) there is a top up to bring it in line with the same cost as the diploma students.  This is not clear on the website - in fact I’m not sure it’s mentioned at all.  There are some very interesting YouTube accounts from students that attend various colleges, worth looking into. 
 

Emil Dale do a degree course. First lot of graduates graduating this year.  This is a triple threat course with equal time spent on all 3 disciplines.  Again there is a top up fee of approx £3k. 
 

I have been absent from the forum for a little while as my eldest DS graduated Tring last year but has gone on to pursue a different career and I needed to take a step back.  However, I now find myself with my youngest DS who is about to go to full time MT training in September - what did I do to deserve this!!!?  So I may have something to add which is worthwhile.  

I didn’t know this so thanks for the warning! So they either pay the extra or don’t do the 3rd term of each year? 
 

I will look at Emil Dale thank you. 
 

Everything seems so complicated when it comes to funding 

44 minutes ago, Littleone said:

Hi Olivia 

 

I believe that Emil Dale are now offering an MT degree and also Chichester University - both with student finance . Although Chichester is a Uni based course I have heard  it offers a similar number of contact hours to the schools above.

My Daughter auditioned at Urdang, Bird, Performers and LIPA last year so am happy to try and answer any questions re the audition process at any of those - daughter is home this week so I can ask her !😀

 

Thank you - I’ll send you a private message