KathyG

Congratulations to all. My DS was very pleased about the Roberts sisters getting promotion. Well done

Elmhurst always struggle with costumes, they don't have the same access as Royal seems to have or the money to spend. The costumes for the girls in Les Rendezvous have been used in previous years. The boys had new shirts for this (I know I made them) my DS moaned like mad about wearing white tights!! Luckily he wasn't in it in the end, so that shut him up!! I enjoyed Les Jeunes Hommes despite the costume though my daughter and I argued about the colour! I also waited for more to happen in Harmony there was just too much running. My DS agrees with Julie about Alpha Beat and he was in it. I didn't enjoy Consider yourself it didn't have any impact on us, though the skirts swirled beautifully when the girls spun round. I was surprised that the 2 main girls in Les Rendezvous weren't 6.3 as I thought the ballet was suppose to showcase the graduates! It is hard for them to get everyone on the stage at some point and there will always be some that get missed. If they did something similar to Royal would it work. They are restricted as they only have the school theatre to perform in and ticket sales possibly has something to do with it. It would be great if they could do one performance in a proper theatre so more family and friends can come along and see them. Especially if it is their graduate perfomance. It would be nice if on the performance sheet if they could put which year group they were as it would save trying to work out from the class list who was performing. I did like the class photos in the programme this year much nicer than the individual head shots. Shame it wasn't 6.3 on the cover. Looking forward to Friday's perfomance DS doing more in that one!

No surprise there then!

We know that Bloch, Dancia and Sansha all offer discount to fulltime dance students, Bloch they register you on their system. Sansha give you a card you present when buying from them and Dancia we show school id or letter from school. We tried at Capezio though we were buying sale items (really don't like that shop very unco-operative staff) Freed said they giving the elastics free! We have a if you don't ask policy DS has a Student ID which he tries to get discount with in any shop he goes in. I'm afraid I don't know about discount if you are a part time student.

Maybe we should all wear something to identify ourselves tomorrow so we will be able to meet. We were like Julie went on our own to the induction, we looked a bit odd without the child. We will be on the look out for ballet0 as her daughter is going to be sharing with our DS next year. I'm a bit on the shy side but I'll be with a little old granny, bleach blonde daughter and a loud sister and I'm hoping to wear my pink shoes and pink top! and after the show a tall red hair DS.

Niether W/L or Elmhurst ever asked to see my DS certificates.

Where are you I may be able to help

Ruth Brill trained there and went onto ENBS and is now with BRB. Most of those we have known who have gone there have gone on else where to train for a few more years before getting work.

We made an all in one in using a pink, purply and sparkly fabric we then added some lovely pink and purply fur to the cuffs and neck (which if I'd found first I may have made the whole outfit in) attached a tail, face paints and ears to match fur she looked gorgeous

Although not a new parent we will be there next Saturday, looking forward to just seeing DS as he's not performing much that day. Enjoy the day.

Only time we were a little sneaky for time of school was for DS to take his driving test which he failed! Next time we were honest and he passed. Regarding extra classes outside of school something we have never done until now. We have though heard of some going home every weekend to take class. DS current teacher has encouraged DS to take class during holidays as he feels it's to long a break without something to keep them in shape.

So the government have ranked them by the number of MDS places they have allocated each school. 1. RBS 2. Elmhurst 3 & 4 Tring and Hammond sorry not sure how many nowadays they get since you can't see the annual report to know which is 3 and which is 4.

We would also rank Tring low, when we auditioned for year 7 we were welcomed with open arms, when we auditioned for year 10 the attitude towards us was so off hand we didn't bother trying for 6 form. I do agree though everyone will have their own experiences of each of the schools both positive and negative. Though once in a school it isn't always easy to change schools due to funding.

2 graduated a few years back and I think dancing in America. The next was in ds year and the last in the year below. The family did move south in the end. They used to travel from Scotland for JA'S in London. The 2 younger boys went through JA'S, W/L and now in US the older 2 went through US only. This must have taken a lot of time and commitment which I'm not sure we would have had.

We have known of at least 3 sets of twins at RBS, but they have all been identical.

DS may have the opportunity to go to the States for a summer school. I've been told that you can get travel insurance to cover you doing dangerous sports/bungey jumping etc but it is very hard to get cover for ballet class. Can anyone recommend a company which offers this sort of cover please?

I've been thinking about when we received our letters and realised I have never opened a letter except the one assessing DS out of W/L. The JA letter arrived on a Saturday (London) hubby opened it and I got a call at work. The waiting list letter for W/L again hubby opened before he went to work. The year 7 letter from Elmhurst arrived on a Saturday and hubby opened and DS called me at work. When he got assessed out of W/L and were applying for schools hubby took the call from Tring offering a place and the Elmhurst letter came on the last day of term at W/L and guess what hubby opened it and sent us a text but didn't put in the message if it was funded or not! When we got to 6th form places as DS was 16 he opened them. I did take the call from Royal when he was offered the place at W/L though which proably made up for never opening the letters. My hubby is never around but seems to always be there when the letters arrive. Maybe he is interested a little bit. Hope the wait ends tomorrow, though I'm sure it was the first Saturday in July our letter arrived but that was 9 years ago.

Regarding amount of time on stage in end of year shows my DS reckons he is on for 30 seconds (couldn't be in all of the dance as he was doing his art A level exam according to him) in one show and in the other 30 seconds plus another dance. He was in the ballet but got dropped! He was also fuming as he had attended all rehearsals and was always in it. There are some girls in his year who don't appear to be in the first show at all. Suppose every child can't be in everything but you would expect to at least be in it.

Both my DS and myself have suffered with ingrowing toenails, he eventually had to have the side of the nail removed and they did something to stop the nail growing back. This was luckily done on the NHS quite quickly but was a few years ago. When I had mine treated they used to roll a small bit of tissue and put it under the nail to lift it away from the toe. I still do this when I can feel it starting to go again. My DS loves having his feet done even gave him a trip to the chiropodist for his brthday one year!

That's my DS out of a job then as I don't have access to that sort of money.

My DS has had asthma since he was 3 which have included a few very scary moments when he was admitted to hospital. He is now in 6.2 at Elmhurst so it hasn't stopped him doing what he wanted.

My tapping DD currently wears Bloch split soles. But she has found they have stretched so she wishes she had brought half a size smaller. She also said she had to loosen the taps quite a bit to get a good sound.

DS finished piece of art for his A level project.

I don't tell him anything and encourage him to do as much overtime as possible.

We used to pay £35 for a private lesson 7 years ago I dread to think what they are now. We were comparing costs recently as DS went up to Pineapple for a 1 and half hour ballet lesson and it cost £10 which he thought was expensive, but when DD said she pays £5 for a 45 minute class locally it doesn't seem so bad. Only downside was there were a lot in the class plus travelling. I also know I'm looking forward to next year when I stop paying for his training/accommodation once he graduates and we may have some money. Have never let on to hubby how much this all costs.