Jewel

I know someone who moved from teaching on the L6 diploma at one of these places to a university/conservatoire setting and the pay and conditions are so much better. (And the atmosphere is less toxic).

I can't speak for Tring but I know that at other similar places teacher salaries are already lower than in other schools/colleges.

it's a school where certain matters relating to auditions and attendance can be discussed but not other opinions due to (now concluded but potential for future) court case.

I've never known it. They used to give 50% bursaries as standard to non MDS holders but I believe they are a lot less generous now.

Good on them. There is another similar school where similar dubious practices have led to a huge percentage of staff leaving over the past few years.

Back in our day Hammond had the wonderful Janet Starmer who used to explain the process in clear, simple detail to parents. It was a sad day when she lost her job in the big re-organisation.

Yes it would. The school has a set number of awards and if a student is not eligible either because they don't meet residency requirements or have a very high family income (it's somewhere around £150-200k per year I think) then it will be given to someone who is eligible.

Student Roost are fairly flexible if someone is unable to take up their place (as opposed to changing their mind and going to another halls.)

We struck lucky. Our GP used to attend a private school in the same city as dd's school and back in the day his school shared a bus with them so he did it for free whilst reminising.

Any college doing that in writing is in danger of their funding being removed. I know that some have always tried to get away with it. But it is very dodgy. Edit - This only applied to DaDa funding not internal scholarships

The government does not allow anyone to be offered definite DaDa funding until at least 1st March so everyone under consideration will be on the reserve list for now.

Yes, they ask to see evidence. The self-declaration is just so the school can estimate how much of the DaDa pot each applicant needs so they know how many people to offer funding too. Later in the year you will get the proper form from the government and that will ask for copies of P60's, self assesments, pension statements, payslips etc.

The way that Dada funding works at all schools/colleges is that everyone who is offered a place is ranked in order of perceived talent. At some point after 1st March the school/college offers DaDa funding to those at the top of the list. As DaDa funding is a pot of money rather than a set amount of awards they do not know at this point exactly how many funded places they can offer so they use data from previous years to help them. Applicants are asked to make a self declaration of parental income and the school/college uses these declarations to help them know how much money they need to allocate to each person. If a lot of the people at the top of the list are from high income families then they will need less support so the money will spread amongst more people so more awards may then be offered. Also applicants who hold more than offer may decline in favour of somewhere else. When my daughter was there she was offered a DaDa straight away but her friend was not offered one until much later in the summer.

It's not the best wording but I would imagine that everyone has had the same letter.

Schools are not allowed to allocate DaDa funding until 1st March. This is a rule set by the DFE. Also until income information forms are sent in the school will not yet know how many students the Dada money will support. In fact, I don't think the schools even know how much they have in the pot in total until about March (though they can guesstimate from previous years).