Fraction of upper school places to non-voc applicants??

[BlueLou]

Does anyone have any actual statistics on this? For any specific upper schools does anyone know the percentage of applicants who don’t come from vocational lower schools, and/or the percentage of successful applicants? For research purposes I’m curious if non-vocational applicants have a better chance at some upper schools than at others.

[Princess Tina]

You could try writing to the schools you are interested in under Freedom of Information act? Forum users will have anecdotal information.

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Princess Tina and welcome to the Forum.  Thank you for your sound advice.

[MLN]

I tried to do a bit of research on this at the end of last term and telephoned ENBS and was told that it was very rare for an applicant not already at vocational school to get in at 16! Tring did not seem to think it was such an issue and I personally know of one student to get in at 16 to Elmhurst from non vocational school.

[taxi4ballet]

I think for RBS upper this year there was just one UK non-voc starter, and there is one that I know of at ENBS, but could be more there.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

As most of the vocational schools are private institutions FOI does not apply.

[Lisa O`Brien]

Welcome to the Forum, Princess Tina [i have all those books !!]

[Yorkshire Pud]

In terms of the number of applicants there were around 500 applicants auditioning at each vocational upper school last year that we went to, with around 50 going through to the finals. A large majority of that number were auditioning for the same list of schools. So clearly many more non-vocational students auditioning than vocational 11 to 16 year olds.

Edited October 16, 2016 by Yorkshire Pud

[balletbean]

I think for RBS upper this year there was just one UK non-voc starter, and there is one that I know of at ENBS, but could be more there.

Very interesting subject. 

 

Could that be for funding reasons or just based on talent alone for acceptance into these establishments? 

 

I'd also like to know the breakdown of the years intake, i.e Number of Voc, Non Voc then whether they are from the UK or Overseas students. 

 

Are the successful students self funded/scholarship/DaDa or other bursaries etc 

 

To gain a clearer understanding of the chances at 16. Maybe incl Elmhurst and Central into the equation.

Edited October 16, 2016 by balletbean

[aileen]

I think that there can be a problem with defining 'vocational' and 'non-vocational' in relation to international students. Some seem to attend studios several hours a day but you would probably not say that they are vocational students as they are not at an educational establishment which provides academic education. They may be home educated (the US) or study through correspondence courses (Oz) or leave formal education at a young age. They train intensively at a very high level but can such students be classed as non- vocational when much or most of their days are given over to ballet and academic work, to the extent that it is done at all, is put on the back burner?

[BlueLou]

Good point Aileen. I was really just thinking of which upper schools my non-voc dd should apply for this time next year. Obviously, ideally, she’d apply for 7 or 8 and see what happens. But realistically, she’ll be in year 11 and have lots of academic stuff to concern herself with too, so I’d rather avoid too many ridiculously long shots! Current thinking is to limit applications to Central, Ballet West, Rambert, and one other to be decided. With this post I’m researching the ‘to be decided’!

[BadBallerina]

I asked this question at a Q&A at Central and was told that there were more non-vocational starters than vocational which was reassuring!

[BlueLou]

I asked this question at a Q&A at Central and was told that there were more non-vocational starters than vocational which was reassuring!

 

Oh now that is fabulous news - thank you BadBallerina! Central is currently my dd’s first choice

[Anon2]

I don't think you can get a definitive answer, each year is different. And certainly at Elmhurst the intake varies, some years larger than others. The year that have just graduated were a small year, the current 6.2 is larger than the current graduate year. No idea how many in 6.1 this time.

 

And when a non vocational student gets into RBS upper school the ballet student grapevine is busy with the news.

 

I don't think you will get a clear answer on funding either. Schools get a pot of money for DaDAs how that gets spread will depend on a number of factors as means tested plus the students will be ranked. I think RBS carry the MDS into sixth form or at least they used to.

[balletbean]

I wasn't too sure if some schools favoured overseas students as many establishments have a limited number of DaDa's. Foreign students would have their own funding system. So to balance the books overseas students financially made sense.   

[Anon2]

I may have been naive believing what we were told by the upper schools when my dd did a few open/experience days prior to auditioning. But we were told by different schools they offer places to those that they believe will benefit from their style of training and as they are judged on their graduate destinations on the applicants employability. Some years they will take more international students then others, some applicants will get multiple offers both here and abroad. Each year group is unique.

 

And regardless of international, UK, funded or not if the training isn't suiting, student not progressing at expected level they won't be continuing their training at that institute. To my knowledge RBS, ENBS, Elmhurst and Central all assess out or suggest students look to change their path.

[atacrossroads]

So what would happen to their academic studies if they were part of their way through their 6th Form A' Level or equivalent studies?

 

I had presumed that it would be the same as the GCSE years (10 & 11) where the schools will not assess a child out...

[Anon2]

Elmhurst have recently changed their policy and I'm sure they wouldn't show you the door mid year but they do have a protocol that means after a number of measures and interventions if the student isn't progressing satisfactorily they can ask them to leave in any year.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Academic schools can ask a child to leave during year 11 if they are not progressing satisfactorarily in one or more subject or part of the course if studying a combination so that's no different.

Edited October 17, 2016 by Picturesinthefirelight