Prancer

As has been said before, the very very low retention rate of UK girls at WL begs two questions: are they selecting Y7 girls on the right basis and is the training good enough? If the answer to both questions is yes then what else can be behind the low retention rate?

Not in the examples I've experienced.

My issue was more with the children and parents attending auditions at a particular school while telling everyone that they don't like the school and wouldn't accept a place even if offered. That's very different than exploring your options when you're undecided.

I think this is an extremely important point. You say that your child really wants to go. They may go and hate it, and come home again. They may go and have the best experience of their life, for however long that ends up being. Once you have taken your child down the stressful road of auditioning and then they are successful in getting a place at their dream school, will telling them that they can't go after all end up having an even bigger negative effect on them than trying it out would have? Would they resent you? Would they always wonder "what if"? A lot will depend on your other options. If you have good local schools and training that you can slot back into in time, if necessary, then what do you have to lose in giving it a go? On a separate note, and not relating to the original poster, I've often puzzled over why some parents seem to throw everything into their child auditioning at certain schools and then say that they never wanted to go there in the first place. Why put your child through the audition process if you don't want to go to the school? Let alone half-heartedly taking up a place that another child is desperately longing for. There are plenty of opportunities to attend open days and insight days at vocational schools. I would suggest doing your homework first and then only applying to schools that you actually want to get into. Just my opinion and I know others will disagree, but it has never made sense to me to audition for a school that you don't like, and especially to tell all the other candidates/parents that you don't like it while you're at the audition. I've experienced this so many times! Perhaps these days the temptation to "Instabrag" has taken over...

Ooh not much longer then 🤞

I'm willing the results to come out this afternoon. I keep getting emails from people called Rachel and it's making me jump!

As far as I read there were no comments directed at individuals but rather the school ethos as a whole. It is difficult for parents to make important decisions without being able to ask questions of how children are treated in general and the "assessing out" process. Being able to get firsthand opinions from parents whose children have gone to these schools is essential and very hard to get in real life. That said, I'm not sure how clean the toilets are is very relevant unless there is other evidence of general poor cleaning. It may well have been an unlucky one-off and not something on which to base a decision as to where to send your child to school. I hope that parents with children at the school will be able to give you more of a feel for their daily life and how they manage things like homesickness. These are important questions and I value this forum for being a place where other people's experiences, good and bad, can be shared.

What is the deadline for girls having to accept/decline WL? I'm sure I saw on an Instagram post that it is 23rd March. If so, it seems that the deadline is before Tring funding and Elmhurst results are out?

DC means "dear child/children" DD means "dear daughter" DS means "dear son" It sounds a bit twee but most parenting forums use the same acronyms.

It's never consistent. But RBS never is! Well done on the full-time place though. What year if you don't mind me asking?

WL results are out! Quicker than expected.

What year group is the person who has heard? And are they international or UK?

There are people who have turned down WL places in the past so there can be movement on the waiting list.

And I think two of those Y9 girls were internationals that only joined in Y9. So will be less than 30% of those who joined in Y7.

The two classes put together was because of the snow and allowing people to leave earlier. But they weren't in the same groups as they were in day 1, so there is speculation that the day 2 groups were somehow meaningful in terms of whether you were a yes, no or maybe. But who knows?!

Did anyone hear when WL Y7 girls results will be out?

You definitely don't need professional photos. But if you're not experienced in ballet yourself do make sure that you have a ballet teacher present when you take the photos to make sure that alignment and technique is as correct as it can be. RBS consistently tell parents not to pay for professional photos but still many do. My suspicion is that it is more for Instagram than anything else!

From what I could work out there were about 40 but some of those, I don't know how many, were for Y8. But I found the whole thing very confusing in terms of numbers as there were 13 on our tour but 28 in the auditon class and don't know why they were put into different groups for day 2 or what that meant. Trying not to read anything into anything!

Anna Morgan does ISTD teacher training and I think does a mixture of online and in person but you can find out more here https://www.danceteachertraining.org/ I have no personal connection to her but she was an adjudicator at a local festival and I was so impressed with her demeanor, her detailed and constructive feedback and her overall values.

The dancers that I know who recently got told to leave the school in Y9 are extremely talented, uninjured and remain 100% dedicated so no, I don't believe those are the reasons they are asked to leave.

Agreed! Fairness seems to be a rarity in the ballet world.

I've heard that all of those in WL finals automatically get places for the SI.

Surely if there was no funding they wouldn't be running funding auditions?

Last year they did a cut after day 1 and so day 2 was a callback. It looks like they are doing it differently this year and everyone attends both days. I'd love to know how many are through to finals for Elmhurst this year.

Thanks, that's interesting. We will just have to wait and see. They havent mentioned jazz or contemporary and it would seem a bit mean to give them just a few hours notice that there is a contemporary/jazz class so I'm hopeful that it will just be ballet this year. But who knows?! I'm certainly not going to suddenly get her to practice jazz or contemporary but it's good to know that something like that could get sprung on her at the last minute!