Pups_mum

The RAD intensive course starts on Tuesday unfortunately. (My DD is doing the advanced foundation course).Given that Monday is a bank holiday I would imagine it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for stardancer to contact anyone at the RAD in time to start the course on Tuesday. I don't know if they would allow someone to join in a little later in the week though - I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Oh no. I am sorry to hear that. I hope she makes a quick and full recovery.

Thanks all, but turns out I was panicking unnecessarily! I was chatting to one of our school TAs this morning and mentioned this problem, saying that the boys will be fit for nothing on Weds morning. She then pointed out that school doesn't start until Thursday! No idea where i got the idea that it was Weds from, but I am so relieved....it takes a great deal of stress out of the whole situation.

Can anybody give me some idea how long the journey will take by public transport? I had a look on the TFL website and it seems to be about 45 mins but my husband reckons that their estimates are always very conservative. DD has her advanced foundation exam at 16.05. According to the RAD website the exam is 85 mins long, so that takes us to 17.30. There is a train home from Euston at 18.30......I am wondering if it is do-able or not or whether I should just book tickets for the 19.30 and accept that we are going to be very late home. I wouldn't be bothered if it was just me and DD, but I will also have my sons, 10 and 7 with me, and they have school the next morning so the extra hour's sleep would be very useful. But if we miss the 18.30 and end up with no seats on the 19.30 it will be a hideous journey! Has anyone made the journey from Battersea to Euston at about that time of day? I'd also be interested in hearing about people's experiences with exams running to time (or not!) at HQ - what do you think is the probability of being out on tine?

Congratulations and good luck to her!

Not quite the same thing, but another example of how the mind becomes affected is that if I have my daughter in the front seat of my car I pretty much always drive to the studio, whether that is where we are meant to be going or not! She usually spots it and tells me, but there has been the odd occasion when I have pulled up in the car park and realized that we were actually supposed to be at Tesco!

I always used super glue. I don't know if that's the approved method but it seemed to work!

Thanks. I think I shall try John Lewis whilst we are in London. The Manchester store had a disappointingly small range of schoolwear, considering it's such a big shop. I did pick up a couple of blouses in Asda yesterday (thanks for the suggestion swanprincess) that are nicely fitted in the body, but they are 3/4 sleeves which technically she is not allowed. However since she is also not allowed to take her blazer off in class I can't see how anyone is going to notice so I thought they would be better than nothing, especially at thebargain price of £5.50 for 2! It does seem to be a problem for quite a lot of us though. I bet there is a business opportunity there - maybe one of the dance wear companies needs to start making school uniform?

Its difficult when you have a long journey isn't it? It's the same for us. The afternoon courses don't finish til 6pm so it's not worth us coming home in between the course and the exam as we wouldn't get home til Sunday and then would have to leave again on Monday. We will get back home very late on Tuesday night before school on Weds, which is going to be very tough on my little boys I'm hoping (but not expecting!)that they will sleep on the way home. My DD's friend is in a worse position though as she starts her course at a dance college on Weds, in a totally new part of the country for her. I am sure the courses/exam session are a week later than they usually are. Certainly it was the week earlier when my DD did the intermediate course. It seems to have made life very difficult for a lot of us. I nearly decided against letting DD do the exam when we got the time, but she has been working so hard that I couldn't bring myself to say no.

Ooh your sister is lucky getting her exam on the Sunday! My DDs teacher asked for a Sunday exam for her as it would have saved me several £100s on the extra nights' accomodation but we ended up with late on Tuesday afternoon. I wonder if they are doing them in grade order - one of my Dd's friends is doing intermediate on Tuesday morning so that would make sense.

DD is doing the advanced foundation course in the afternoons 27-31 August and then has her exam on the afternoon of Sept 3rd. She doesn't know anyone else who is doing it so I wondered if by any chance anybody else's DD was going? I know they don't get much oportunity to chat on these courses but its always nice to see a friendly face so if anyone else will be there please let me know. Also, if anyone fancies meeting up for a coffee or something, we'll be staying in London for the duration and it would be nice to put names to faces!

Thanks all. She isn't tall actually , she's rather short but does seem to have longish arms! I had forgotten trutex - I think I remember having them when I was at school myself. I shall look for them and see if they are any better. She doesn't have a jumper or cardigan, just a blazer over her blouse so it does look scruffy if the blouses are too baggy. Thankfully the 6th form uniform does have a jumper so it will be better next year.

I know this isn't exactly dance related, but I imagine a lot of our DD's are similar build,so I hope the mods will forgive me for being a bit off topic. I'm struggling to find any ordinary white school blouses for 15 year old DD. All the ones that are her size in body and sleeve length seem to be massively wide and baggy in the body. Last year she had some from debenhams that were fitted in the body which fitted her much better but she's grown out of them and I can't seem to find the same type this year. There are plenty of fitted blouses with short sleeves and open collars, but she has to have long sleeves and a proper collar to wear a tie with. We went to the Trafford Centre in Manchester yesterday and went in every shop that sold uniform to no avail. There were some in John Lewis but only in smaller sizes, I guess they may have bigger on their website. Several shops had "generous" or "wider fit" ranges but they looked at me like I was some kind of lunatic when I asked if there was a "narrow fit" range. Does anyone have any ideas? We are spending the week after next in London whilst DD does the intensive exam course at the RAD so I can try the shops there. On a more general point, this does annoy me rather. The government makes all these noises about being concerned about childhood obesity, and yet it is much easier to buy what is effectively an outsize school uniform than one for a slim girl. And DD isn't THAT thin, she fits an adult size 6. My sons are naturally skinny, especially the elder of the two, and I also find it difficult to dress them.

My DD would wear them without the decorations, albeit a bit grudgingly, even now. (She is 15, going into year 11) but would have been extremely unhappy about the decorations. In all honesty, I do think they are a bit too babyish for a secondary school pupil. I do sympathise, its so hard to find the balance between a good supportive shoe and something that looks age appropriate. If you have a non standard foot size it is even harder. Have you looked at any european brands? Geox is my favoured brand for school shoes and ricosta are good too. My DD has a high arch and instep and has found them good, though she is a fairly standard width. Another brand possibly worth trying is Skechers. I have a pair of plain mary janes from their children's range that I wear for work and they are very supportive of my horribly over pronating feet. Hope you find something - it drives me crazy that there seems to be nothing between shoes that look like they are aimed at 7/8 year olds and the so called ballerina styles that most teenagers seem to slop around in these days.

My DD does pointe work in her advanced foundation class and also in "free" ballet class and private lessons, but she's never done any in syllabus classes where the grade doesn't include pointe.

Me too.I notice that there are only 7 venues listed though, as opposed to the 8 there have been in recent years. There is no performance listed for May - maybe there is one yet to come?

I agree. I love this forum too. I use quite a lot of different forums related to different subjects and this is my favourite. Everyone is so supportive and most disagreements are handled in a very civilised manner. Plus the moderators do a really good job. I have very rarely seen a "nasty" post on here and I think it is brilliant that people are so willing to share the benefits of their knowledge and experience with others. I think that there is a very stereotypical view of the parents of children involved in the performing arts, fuelled by programmes such as Dance Moms. The people who believe in those stereotypes should read this forum to see just how different the Balletco mums (and Dads) are. I've met a few of the regular posters, including one who has become a very good real life friend, and am pleased to say that all the forum members that I have met are just as lovely in real life as they are on line. I would love to meet more of you too.

Thanks all. Unfortunately the CATs and the SBYC all seem to be on weekday evenings and our journey would be too far to be feasible on a regular basis. I could do with finding some one day workshops or shortish self contained projects like EYB but not much luck so far. I've just seen that the RAD is running a repetoire day based on Giselle in Glasgow in November though, which I may look into. Has anyone got any experience of these workshops? The older age group is for older than 12 working at IF or above so it sounds like it might be a possibility.

As the title suggests, my 15 year old DD is starting to feel a bit isolated. We live in a fairly geographically isolated area which is part of the problem as it makes accessing ballet related activities quite difficult, but it's a bit more than that. She goes to an excellent local dance school with lovely friends and high quality teachers, and in recent years the older end of the school has been very strong. However, this summer alot of the seniors are leaving to take up post 16 or post 18 training which will cut the numbers in the more advanced classes very significantly. A couple of DDs best friends will still be at home, and they are both excellent dancers but their main interests are in other dance genres.They do ballet because they know it's beneficial, but they don't love it, whereas DD is the opposite. I guess this is not an uncommon problem - if the numbers competing in the older age groups at the dance festivals we go to are anything to go by there is definitely a drop off in interest in ballet compared to other types of dance beyond the early teens. I guess what I am after is any suggestions anyone has to help her maintain her passion for ballet in her slightly lonesome circumstances. She is doing her advanced foundation exam in a few weeks, and assuming she is successful she will be the only one moving on to advanced 1. I had been hoping that EYB would be back to Newcastle next year as that is a good opportunity to dance with other students of a similar age, but sadly that's not going to happen. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that they will come to another venue that we can reach but I am not overly hopeful. It doesn't help that she had a bad experience at a summer school a couple of years ago so she isn't keen on the idea of going to residential courses,plus she's concerned that the other students of around her age will be mainly vocational students and she won't fit in. So I am at a bit of a loss what else to suggest for her. EYB has been brilliant in the past as she's got a great deal out of dancing with lots of other students so ideally I would like to find something along those lines. Does anyone know of any similar programmes to EYB in the north of England? There seems to be quite a lot around for younger students but not a great deal for the older end if they don't aspire to going into vocational training. Can anyone suggest anything? She is in no way unhappy at her present school, she would just like to do something to top up the teaching she is already getting.

I would guess that the thinking ar WL is that as there is quite a large number of children living in close proximity (are they in dormitories with quite a few in each room?) they want to do what they can to minimise the risk of an infectious disease through the school.Flu spreads largely by droplets containing the virus that are released into the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or even talks. Unfortunately this starts happening about 24 hours before the infected person becomes unwell, and the droplets spread up to something like 6ft. So the illness can spread very quickly through places like schools and offices where people are closely co located for much of the day. I guess in a residential school where the children are together 24/7 the risks are further magnified. Of course for many people flu is a very unpleasant but short lived illness. Those with pre existing illnesses, very young children, the elderly and pregnant women are most at risk of becoming seriously unwell so that is why they have been targeted by the NHS immunisation programme so far. In other countries, such as the USA, it is part of the standard childhood immunisation programme and the vaccine is also going to be more widely offered here. I think that the epidemic a couple of years ago realise how serious a flu outbreak can be and more people are interested inbeing immunised now. I am without doubt biased as I have seen the very worst that flu can do, and my children and myself have been uneventfully immunised for years. So I am strongly of the opinion that the benefits outweigh the risks of immunisation. However, nothing is ever 100% black and weight and it is a personal decision. If you are unsure about the pros and cons probably the best thing todo is to talk to your GP, practice nurse or health visitor and get some further information.

Pinko-gray, that is definitely the colour of my DDs ballet tights once I have washed them a few times!

Only just spotted this post Julie - hope you are enjoying yourself in our gorgeous part of the world. If you are staying next week the forecast is very good for most of next week too though there may be some thunder storms in the latter half of the week. You never know, you might have seen my DD on one of your swimming trips as she goes to school in Keswick. A lot of her classmates have been dashing down to the lake for a swim after school this week but she has to get the bus back home on time for ballet class of course! If you are still around and want any more ideas of places to visit,good places to eat etc just let me know.

I'm no expert, and I am sure more knowledgeable people will correct me if I am wrong, but as I understand it, a student hoping to gain a 6th form place at vocational school would be expected to be working at Advanced 1 level. Now depending on how big your school is and how many other more serious dancers there are, this may well require private lessons at some point. My DD is doing her advanced foundation this summer and (assuming she passes of course) will be the only one moving up to Advanced 1 in the Autumn term so she will have to do this in her private lessons. I would imagine the situation would be similar in a lot of local dance schools. At your DD's level I wouldn't think that it is essential that she has private lessons, but I agree with the other posters who have said that she needs to be getting more hours in. Remember that if she applies for a 6th form place she will be competing against a great many other talented dancers, including those who have been at vocational schools since year 7. To get to a similar level whilst attending a "normal" academic school and working with a local teacher is not impossible as a number of the children of regular posters on here have proved, but it is a very big challenge. If this is your DD's definite ambition then I would think that you need to be making plans about how to get her "on target" over the next few years. As she gets further along in her academic schooling, especially once she starts GCSE courses, getting tge hours in becomes even harder, so don't leave things too late. 6th form may seem a long way off now, but believe me, time flies! There are lots of things that can help - associate programmes, youth ballets, summer schools etc all have great benefits - but don't underestimate the value of hours spent under the tuition of a good local teacher. Some private lessons may well be a beneficial part of your daughter's training, along with other things. I think a serious chat with her teacher about her ambitions and what opportunities are open to her would be a good place to start, but she almost certainly needs to be increasing what she is currently doing. Good luck with everything.

Awww, try to think of it as an exciting beginning rather than a sad end. And maybe she will be able to do occasional classes with her old teacher and friends in the holidays or something? I'm sure the links don't have to be broken entirely. Still, I am one to talk - I can't sleep tonight because I am feeling sad about my youngest spending his last day in the infants tomorrow. It's a tiny village school so he has had the same teachers for 3 years, and his big brother was there for the 3 years prior to that. I am getting all emotional at the fact that after 6 consecutive years I wont be going into that classroom in thr morning. Which is all a bit ridiculous as he is only moving into the next room and it's not as if I will never see tge infant staff again! I think these events are always bittersweet because whilst it is wonderful and exciting to see our children growing up it is a bit sad and scary too, especially when you realise that the youngest is growing up. I vote for ice cream and a glass of our favourite drinks all round!

My DD struggled to put her own hair into a bun til she was about 12 or 13. She does have waist length hair that is very thick though, and to be fair, our hairdresser struggles to style it. I took her to the hairdresser to have it put up prior to a competition once in the hope tgat they would manage to get rid of the little wispy bits that I always struggled with. Two different girls had a go and as soon as we left tge salon DD asked me to re do it as they hadn't got it secure enough. I think perhaps they were scared of hurting her whereas I have learned to be fairly brutal over the years! She makes a pretty decent job of it herself now, but has never achieved the immaculate not a hair out of place look that some other girls have. She had it shoulder length for a while, but that was even worse as somehow without the length it seemed even thicker! I guess she is destined to always look just slightly scruffy - takes after her mum!