Living at The Hammond

[HAIRBELLES]

I agree with dancing unicorn. Ideally there would be upgrading done but I doubt it will be done now as I think the long term plan is on site boarding. It is a happy place.

Your post made me smile sarahw.

On my tour around they said their on site boarding would be completed by the time my Dd would be in yr9 that was 9 years ago .

My dds had a wonderful time at Hampton Lodge, a home from home ,and still miss it now especially my youngest.

Edited January 18, 2017 by HAIRBELLES

[mumof6]

well done amydancer on your ds getting a place and well done sarah on your dd getting a place. 

 

i can say that i have had no problems with the boarding house or staff, my dd has been very happy and very well looked after, even though she been poorly alot she has always been looked after and never left on her own, the staff let you know aswell so your always kept in the loop if you know what i mean.

[meadowblythe]

Have to smile too, about the ongoing boarding issues.  Hairbelles, we must have been on that same tour!

 

When I first saw the boys' boarding house my thought was that there was no way my DS was living there ...

 

But in year 10, having been in purpose built accommodation where he had 3 frankly miserable years, he loved the Hammond boarding - as has been said, getting away from school. If they were on site, whilst they would be able to play sports all day and all night there would be nowhere to go, no walks into town, or the park. 

 

At the end of the day, it is the quality of the staff, not the quality of the day-room, which makes the difference.

 

As an aside - most jealous I have ever seen DS of his little sister was visiting her vocational musical school accommodation.  A large Georgian house, with a walled garden and the school netball court attached.  Decent space between the beds, and a mix of full time and flexi boarders.  Kitchen with toast and hot chocolate making facilities provided.  All within walking distance of a small friendly town that they were free to visit after school every night from year 10.   Actually uttered the immortal words "it's not fair .."

[sarahw]

Hi-Wonder if anyone knows if the Y10 will have academic exams this year - and when? Many thanks

[theother51]

I believe that year 7,8 & 9 have mid year tests in January. Year 10 do not due to GCSE teaching time but will along with the other year groups have formal end of year exams in June. A revision & exam timetable is issued to students & via email to parents.

 

Year 11 have GCSE mocks in early January.

[sarahw]

That's very helpful thank you!

[Boogalou]

Hi all, got DD's assessments results today and very pleased with how she is doing as she only started yr9 in September but I just wondered, do we get assessments results every term? and also it says pass mark is 50% so does that mean some students do get below 50% and will those students be assessed out at the end of the year?

[sarahw]

None for us yet ...... getting impatient! !

[Karen]

Hi all, got DD's assessments results today and very pleased with how she is doing as she only started yr9 in September but I just wondered, do we get assessments results every term? and also it says pass mark is 50% so does that mean some students do get below 50% and will those students be assessed out at the end of the year?

Dance assessments from the November session are usually out in December, arriving at home just after students have broken up. The only other dance assessment feedback is at the end of the summer term, previously based on your child's production preparation. Academic reporting is more frequent. I have heard it said that if you want to know anything about dance progress in between, the dance administrator will ask specific questions of teachers for you. No assessment results yet for us either!

 

Not sure whether an assessment of below 50% suggests assessing out; possibly something school could answer if asked?

Edited January 27, 2017 by Karen

[Pointe-less]

Not sure if this has already been covered in a different thread or not but I was wondering if anyone could shed some light onto additional costs when accepting an MDS funded place at The Hammond? I don't mean the parental contribution as I understand that this is personal to ones circumstances, but anything and everything else that anyone can think of would be a great help to try and shed some light on the true cost of having a child at vocational school! Thank you

[Snape]

Hello Pointe-less,

It's not too bad..

I think the MDS is quite generous really. It does cover slightly different things at each of the four schools.

I have found additional costs have been:

Pocket money, as they need to buy more for themselves than they would if they lived at home. For instance they may run out of toiletries, need fruit/snacks/batteries/stuff to decorate room at halloween, Christmas ect, all sorts you wouldn’t think of.

Cost of travelling to pick them up/ trains I hadn’t really thought too much about this before DD went but when you add it up ekkk.

Days off work to pick them up/parents eve/performances ( I have used a lot of holiday up doing this or had to take slight salary sacrifice some months) This is probably the biggest extra for me

Set up costs, bedding, school uniform which I think is very reasonable/ boarding clothes/ extra hair-dryer etc/ ( Although once initial shop had been done not so bad to top up)

Postage - they forget all sorts and NEED? XYZ so in the post it goes. I know all the rates of postage! Some parents send nice things to their children - I am not great at this - will try harder.

We ran out of our allocated ballet equipment budget. You may be Ok if you are a boy. But with pointe shoes we couldn’t stick to it. It is nice to have that though!

Taxis if they need early class or doctors

Mobile phone contract with data ( she would of had a very basic one if she was at home but they have only just got wifi in the boarding house and it is unreliable, so this was needed.

Very modest amount for trips from the boarding house

Birthday and Christmas presents for other children

Optional trips ie France.

Optional extra classes, music theory, extra instrument

Rad exams and health insurance is included with MDS as is one music lesson, there is an excess though.

I have probably forgotten some things, I am sure others will add. I have however saved lots of money on ballet lessons! I put that towards the petrol.

[Pointe-less]

Hello Pointe-less,

It's not too bad..

I think the MDS is quite generous really. It does cover slightly different things at each of the four schools.

I have found additional costs have been:

Pocket money, as they need to buy more for themselves than they would if they lived at home. For instance they may run out of toiletries, need fruit/snacks/batteries/stuff to decorate room at halloween, Christmas ect, all sorts you wouldn’t think of.

Cost of travelling to pick them up/ trains I hadn’t really thought too much about this before DD went but when you add it up ekkk.

Days off work to pick them up/parents eve/performances ( I have used a lot of holiday up doing this or had to take slight salary sacrifice some months) This is probably the biggest extra for me

Set up costs, bedding, school uniform which I think is very reasonable/ boarding clothes/ extra hair-dryer etc/ ( Although once initial shop had been done not so bad to top up)

Postage - they forget all sorts and NEED? XYZ so in the post it goes. I know all the rates of postage! Some parents send nice things to their children - I am not great at this - will try harder.

We ran out of our allocated ballet equipment budget. You may be Ok if you are a boy. But with pointe shoes we couldn’t stick to it. It is nice to have that though!

Taxis if they need early class or doctors

Mobile phone contract with data ( she would of had a very basic one if she was at home but they have only just got wifi in the boarding house and it is unreliable, so this was needed.

Very modest amount for trips from the boarding house

Birthday and Christmas presents for other children

Optional trips ie France.

Optional extra classes, music theory, extra instrument

Rad exams and health insurance is included with MDS as is one music lesson, there is an excess though.

I have probably forgotten some things, I am sure others will add. I have however saved lots of money on ballet lessons! I put that towards the petrol.

Wow snape that is a great help thank you, can I ask what year your dd is in? Also when do they start pointe and do you know what sort of level they need to be for a year 9 entry? Are they still looking for potential or is it more ability by then? Thank you again for your reply!!

[Snape]

Pointe-less she is in year 8 at the moment. So the same age as your DD?

My DD had started a small amount of very basic pointe ( interfoundation level) before she started in year 7. Some children had not done any, and it was slowly introduced, I think all had pointe shoes by Christmas?. It is still now at a very basic level.

I have no idea of the level they need to be or what they would be looking for, for the MDS. The MDS is for classical though, they do have school scholoarships as well. The children in each year vary a lot, I would think they would still be looking for potential but with more technique than required for year 7. Children do develop at different rates. In year 8 about half have taken or are taking intermediate soon, some have just done interfoundation. I am not sure this is a good guide to ability though they are all lovley dancers and they seem to catch up quickly.

[Pointe-less]

Oh how naive of me but I didn't know that MDS was based on Classical!! Based on this can I ask what solo have people's DC done?? Is ballet the way to go?? My DD is just a hobby dancer but with having a few friends and family apply for the big 4 year in year out it has made her consider whether she should take things more serious!!

[Lema]

My dd has always done Lyrical for her solo, I figured that as they do a ballet class as part of the audition process maybe it was better to show a different style....it's worked well enough to get her offers of a place and funding finals but she has never secured a MDS, however they also don't have to do their solo in funding audition so not sure the solo would have a massive amount of bearing on an offer of funding?? I am intrigued now too!! (As to what solos everyone else has and how it worked out for them) lol

[sarahw]

My dd did lyrical on advice of her teacher for same reasons as Lema. I suspect the performance is important not actually what it is?

[theother51]

I was told that they are given scores for each part of their audition, both at prelims & the funding final. There are some children who perform better at prelims than finals & vice versa. I don't know if the different sections are weighted differently though. I would guess that the ballet class has a higher weighting but that is just a guess.

 

A list is then made from the highest to the lowest aggregated scores & MDS are given out like that.

[Lema]

My dd did lyrical on advice of her teacher for same reasons as Lema. I suspect the performance is important not actually what it is?

Glad to know there is some sense to my logic then lol and my daughter weren't the only one opting for Lyrical!

[Pointe-less]

I was told that they are given scores for each part of their audition, both at prelims & the funding final. There are some children who perform better at prelims than finals & vice versa. I don't know if the different sections are weighted differently though. I would guess that the ballet class has a higher weighting but that is just a guess.

 

A list is then made from the highest to the lowest aggregated scores & MDS are given out like that.

This makes sense, so the highest overall scores get the MDS, but maybe not so good for someone who scored really high in one area but not so high in others? There is so much to take in when it comes to vocational schools and auditions haha

[Snape]

I don’t think there is much point trying to guess really. It is probably best we don't know!

I am sure the children, who they think, at that point in time, will be best suited to classical training will get the MDS's, that is what the government allocated the funding awards for, how they decide that who knows?

Maybe other children who have an excellent all round score are the ones offered bursaries?

My DD did do a ballet solo, we were advised to do a different style as they would see the ballet in the audition class but she insisted, she loves ballet, so I said fine. It was done last minute.com, not perfect but fine, she liked it and she did get multiple offers. I don't think it matters what style, they are probably looking for love of dance and performance maybe a glimpse of personality, again who knows.

Good luck everyone! I hope your children find the best place for them.

One thing I do know is auditioning is stressful! for the parents!! time consuming and expensive. Not sure I could have done it again

[Lema]

Well put snape, at the end of the day they know who they want and why and for everyone else it's a guessing game and best not to give it too much thought!!

[HAIRBELLES]

Oh how naive of me but I didn't know that MDS was based on Classical!! Based on this can I ask what solo have people's DC done?? Is ballet the way to go?? My DD is just a hobby dancer but with having a few friends and family apply for the big 4 year in year out it has made her consider whether she should take things more serious!!

I don't think the MDS is strictly for Classical ballet anymore as I'm sure when I last read the requirements on the MDS website it says " dance" where it used to say "classical ballet" happy to be corrected though .

Usually everyone who attends finals will be offered a bursary if not successful in bagging an MDS.

[shygirlsmum]

DD heard that a girl she met in the audition has been offered 100% bursary already. According to DD and her friend the girl was a really beautiful dancer applying for year10. I was under the impression that the max bursary was 50% but I guess if they see someone they simply must have they make the funds available to make it happen.

[Karen]

I think you are right about wanting to see performance quality in a solo. Dd did ballet all those years ago (she's now in yr 11) One member of dance staff once said to me that they see ballet and modern in the audition and she loved to see a good tap solo because it showed versatility.

[Lema]

DD heard that a girl she met in the audition has been offered 100% bursary already. According to DD and her friend the girl was a really beautiful dancer applying for year10. I was under the impression that the max bursary was 50% but I guess if they see someone they simply must have they make the funds available to make it happen.

I too thought bursaries were only 50%, or at least that's what they said last year!! Wow they must really like her, but I don't understand why they would offer a bursary before MDS audition has even took place??

[theother51]

Yet we were told not to prepare a tap solo

[shygirlsmum]

I too thought bursaries were only 50%, or at least that's what they said last year!! Wow they must really like her, but I don't understand why they would offer a bursary before MDS audition has even took place??

The girls are friends on Instagram and she apparently posted her offer letter, I understand she has finals for Elmhurst too so no idea if she has accepted.

[dramascientist]

Hmm she wants to be careful, it was my understanding that students were not allowed to discuss individual awards with other? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

DRSC

[shygirlsmum]

Really, I didn't know that. Can I ask for my post to be deleted as I would hate to get her in trouble.

[sarahw]

Yes you are right DSC. Her parents need to supervise!! But very hard to hide such amazing news.

[dramascientist]

Tru dat!

[mumof6]

i had heard the mda awards were based on ballet but then i got told its all about potential in yr 7 not sure about other years, I would say for solo pick what strongest at,my dd did street dance for her solo. She said noone else did street at her audition they were mainly ballet or contempary.

[sarahw]

I think they are ballet based but that doesn't mean the current level it can mean potential in physique/turnout/musicality /flexibility etc