Vonrothbart

I watched a little bit of the test match v India, and it was unreal the advantage India got with the weather. It was almost full cloud when England batted, and then shortly after India went in, it cleared to full sun. The weather men say it will be cloudy tomorrow, so it looks odds on it will be 2-1. It was interesting to see Cook take a great catch in India's first innings, then drop a sitter in their second, I suppose that's sport for you. I don't know how they gave Root out, it looked as though the ball had hit the ground to me, and most other people seemed to agree.

It must be devastating for your DD Alice, after almost certainly being on such a high only a matter of months ago. I know quite a few dancers who were offered places at certain US's, who's parents just couldn't afford the costs involved without funding. They all gained places at other schools though, with various types of funding, I'm not sure how difficult it would be to switch schools in the second year though, maybe someone on the forum could advise.

Penalty Charge Notice, grrrrrrrr.

I recently went to Beverley, a town in East Yorkshire. I needed a couple of hours parking, so obviously skipped the short stay car parks and looked for a medium stay one. I parked up in the medium stay car park, and went to the machine which was only 5m away. I paid £3 for 2 hours parking, and returned 10 minutes before the time elapsed, only to find a ticket on my windscreen. To cut a long story short, I appealed the fine, but it was rejected. The reason being, I hadn't used the correct machine, although it was the same price for parking if I'd gone in the long stay park. I checked,  and it does state in very small letters on the machine, that tickets are not transferrable between the medium stay and the long stay, but there is no barrier between the parks and ticket machines, just markings on the ground. It must be a very good earner for the council, as there was two other people waiting after me to pay, parked more or less next to my car. Some would argue we all should read the terms and conditions meticulously first, but most of us park up, go to the nearest machine and pay, then do what you have to do. 

I just find it a little boring watching, instead of being out there. It's not only cricket, I played RL too at a good standard, but find most games a little boring too, it might be the smell and atmosphere of the dressing rooms I miss, in fact it definitely is.

47 minutes ago, balletbean said:

Sadly the can’t be said for those in our local Education Dept . Having recently been asked ‘What is Ballet?’ When engaged in a conversation about qualifications & funding!!  😩😡

Well how do you answer a question like that? (It's a type of dance I suppose) I find that incredible BB, and I think they were maybe taking the mick.

I played for a few years at a reasonable standard, but I find it hard work watching it.

1 hour ago, straceydor said:

Lots of parents whose children dance have never heard of the hammond tring or elmhurst for the top lower schools. For upper schools unless someone in the school you are at or something like this forum nobody has heard of the upper schools. Two friends are looking at upper schools for their dd but they have no idea.

That's a fair comment, but any parent who's child shows promise and has ambitions in dance, would surely have enquired at a much younger age than 16.

It seems very hard Lisa, but you know what they say, it's a lot easier to get a job when you have a job. Keep talking and listening to people and before you know it, another opportunity that suits you more, might well turn up. 

I know plenty at, or just starting US's, who only did local classes and associates. I'm not sure if that counts as getting anywhere, but I would say they are still on the ride.

Good luck Lisa, hope you find contentment, success, and satisfaction in your new job. I reckon you deserve it, for being who you are.🤙

I'm sure it will bounce back Fiz, Jackmanii is a tough nut, even in droughts like the one we've had. We have half a dozen clematis plants, and there's only one of them that seems to have struggled a bit this summer. Strangely though, it's next to a water feature, and gets watered regularly by the overspill when the birds come for a bath. (Maybe too much) Speaking of clematis, we have a couple of the Boulevard type, waiting to be planted. They only grow to about 4ft, but flower continuous from May until late September, so looking forward to seeing them grow.

At such a young age HM, I'd just let her enjoy whatever she does, and see how it goes.

I see, I suppose it backs up the opinion by some, that vocational school isn't for every child as such a young age.

12 hours ago, Dancing unicorn said:

I think it depends on where you live too! We live in the country and for us going to JA’s and then vocational school was our only option! Were as if you live in an area where you have the option of excellent training on your doorstep ie London or Birmingham then I wouldn’t bother with associates or vocational school until 16! I really wish we had had this option. 

Don't you think it might be a bit late to go to an associate scheme at 16, as a lot of the schemes concentrate on the basics, preferably at a young age.

My GDD like a lot of other DC, would almost certainly have had to miss lessons on many occasions, but in our case she was always given "time out" and was often told how proud the school were on her achievements. If she did happen to miss anything she considered important, she would do a little extra, usually on the train.I'm not too sure what the situation would have been to miss a full day every week though, as that's quite a lot.

On 06/07/2018 at 22:42, KindleK said:

Hi, does anyone know what the academic standard is like at Tring Park? My ds would like to go full time but he is currently at a very good grammar school and I am very concerned that his studies will suffer as a result. Looking at the Ofsted report there appears to be a few issues with pushing more capable students to reach their full potential. Does anyone have experience of this ??

Has your son had any kind of offer from Tring KK?

Just like the world cup footballers then. 😄

Just terrible Primrose, signed.

13 hours ago, YorkshirePudding said:

I would just add, it's definitely worth auditioning for all the resilience reasons BlueLou says, but also to benchmark whether or not the dream is realistic or whether it is helpful and healthy to redefine success more broadly.

 

My DS loves dancing, but just isn't really very good at it and no amount of 'follow your dreams and they will come true' hocus pocus is going to make dance a realistic ambition. (I keep meaning to start a 'DC who love dance but arent particularly good' thread to celebrate the small triumphs of the recreational dancer). But because he has ventured out from our teeny weeny dance school into the bigger world and seen this for himself he knows this to be the case and views dance as something he really enjoys and wants to improve at in order to support other aspects of performing arts. And so the dream evolves into something that better fits the child...

 

I'm not suggesting you give up at the first 'no' or even the second or third if it feels like you are in the right ballpark, and I'm not suggesting anything at all about your DD and her dancing. I'm just saying keep realistic as well as optimistic. And as CeliB says look at offering lots of different opportunities. It can be really easy to assume when you read this forum that chances of success are relatively high. They aren't. And the only way you will know is by having a go. And there are lots of fun times to be had on the way, and whatever the ultimate destination the journey is never wasted and you will be wiser more experienced travellers wherever you end up.

 

Good luck!

 

 

This post is like a breath of fresh air to me, absolutely bang on.

I wonder how the team selections were made?

To be fair M2BF, RBS get it wrong with the yes's too, it's not only the no's. At such a young age, it must be almost impossible for any school to get it right every time, for many reasons.

You can tell her "well done" from me too, for all the hard yards.

5 hours ago, Motomum said:

My son 10, did a non-syllabus Boys 12 week ballet course this year taught by an RBS dancer.

What became very apparent as the weeks went on was that they did the same thing over and over and over again. They did not progress past a certain point umless the point at which they were currently at was absolutely perfect. The teacher never felt they were good enough so they didn’t put the spin on the end of their pirouette prep.

The teaching approach was slow, exacting, and strict. The main focus of every movement was posture, and then posture over and over again.

i have watched the live feed RBS rehearsals from the ROH on YouTube. If you are interested in a taster of how the training would be with RBS they are well worth watching.

The style of teaching that they use does not suit everyone, it would not suit me, and their approach to training is very different from other schools from what I can see. Their belief that it is better to master one move with absolute perfection, rather than a 100 mediocre moves says a lot about their overall philosophy. 

Some of the boys in my sons class were quickly bored, and confused by this approach as it is not how ballet exam classes are usually  taught.

 

My son to both our surprise was offered a JA place, his first ever audition outside EYB. Prior to the audition his dance teacher focused on posture, flexibility and strength work with him, not ballet. 

 

He found the audition nerve wracking because it had so little ballet in it. He showed me some of the flexibility work they did, it was very difficult indeed.

 

To there credit the RBS did indicate in their taster class audition last November what format their auditions would follow. For a two hour dance class, that I watched, there was about 20 mins of basic ballet, the rest was foot placement, body alignment and posture. All of this was in the JA audition that my son took part in.

 

 

One thing for certain regarding RBS, it's absolutely not the be all and end all school. Like has been said on this forum many times before, there's more than one road leading to Rome

Still not heard a cuckoo in these parts, very unusual. 

If you can find the strength (not easy by any means) to stand up to a bully, you will probably have at least one friend for life, as I found out in my younger days. He's turned out to be a decent bloke to be honest, and even now still apologises from time to time about his bullying all those years ago, and says I was right to let him have one. I wouldn't fancy it now mind, as he's a man mountain.

I thought I'd mention this too, I played golf with a young lad, who handicap was 2 at the time, he's now a professional. His elder brother is the present Professional Commonwealth Lightweight boxing champion, and his younger brother is a Professional footballer who plays for Leeds United, not bad for one family.