Tulip Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Not a witch hunt at all, but we are discussing an ISI report that is public knowledge. I think everyone on this forum have agreed that now issues are being addressed the school will go forward. I’m just sad and rightfully so, that it took an unannounced visit from the ISI to identify serious issues, Instead of management dealing with them in the beginning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harwel Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 18 hours ago, Anna C said: I don’t think the way this discussion is going is particularly helpful, to be honest. I’ve said before that if someone has not experienced a problem themselves, this does not mean that the problem is non existent. Clearly the ISI inspectors feel that actually, the school has not been as safe a place as it should have been for some students so again, let us not minimise other people’s experiences. Tring is a lovely school in many respects and has an excellent track record for graduate employment, especially in the Musical Theatre industry. There are and have been some wonderful dance teachers and the academics have always been extremely good. However, I don’t think anyone could reasonably deny that there have been problems in the Dance Department. The school, and I assume the ISI, have clearly investigated these problems and are taking steps to rectify them to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the students. That is good and should be reassuring to parents of current and prospective students. The issues mentioned in the ISI report are serious. Not every school receives such a report. Had these issues happened at my daughter’s old academic school I would be concerned, even if my child had not suffered personally. Such a key member of the Senior leadership team going on sabbatical mid year, followed by retirement, soon after a report of this nature may lead people to come to their own conclusions so to be discussing this is not, in my opinion, a “witch hunt” at present. I would however remind everyone to please bear our forum rules in mind. As Always Anna, a very well thought out and put together reply and I do agree with you. I was in my own way, trying to bring a bit of balance. Anyway, apparently no new director of dance will be sought at this time - I believe until the sabbatical period has ended. The director role will be covered by the current senior dance team. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mtbmom Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 All I can say on this thread is that sadly my dc had personal experience in all the areas Tring just failed in, despite the school being challenged by me. They have acted swiftly because they had to - if an acceptable plan had not been put in place by January they could have been deregistered. The changes have been too slow for my DC who was mentally devastated by the time spent there but I hope that they will mean no other students have to suffer. My DC’s treatment while there will take a very long time to work through. Tring has the potential now to become a really great school. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarmoniousDay Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 On 13/02/2019 at 18:48, Harwel said: (...) They had a fantastic head of dance in position after Terry Wright left, would really have transformed the ballet at Tring, particularly for the upper school. Unfortunately, there was trouble with the appointment (I suspect I know where the trouble lay but supposition only) and they lost an amazing teacher who would have been perfect to take over the director role. (...) Harwel just to clarify Terry Wright's successor was Jacinta Walsh M.A., ... please see Dancing Times "Education", "Tring Park is delighted to announce that Jacinta Walsh has been appointed the new deputy director of Dance and takes up her position in the 2017 summer term" (May 2017 issue pp 105-106) Jacinta was a professional ballet/contemporary dancer in Europe and she is now an international ballet teacher who has strong student outcomes. Her students have entered ballet companies, contemporary dance companies and world class vocational ballet / dance schools. She holds a Masters of Arts & Cultural Management as well. Jacinta was taught by world-renowned masters of ballet. I believe the parents and students really respected and appreciated Jacinta and her work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harwel Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 12 hours ago, Mtbmom said: All I can say on this thread is that sadly my dc had personal experience in all the areas Tring just failed in, despite the school being challenged by me. They have acted swiftly because they had to - if an acceptable plan had not been put in place by January they could have been deregistered. The changes have been too slow for my DC who was mentally devastated by the time spent there but I hope that they will mean no other students have to suffer. My DC’s treatment while there will take a very long time to work through. Tring has the potential now to become a really great school. I am so sad to hear this. I do hope your dc will recover fully from their experience. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harwel Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 6 hours ago, HarmoniousDay said: I believe the parents and students really respected and appreciated Jacinta and her work She was fabulous and my DC was very sad indeed when she left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 (edited) On 28/02/2019 at 22:57, Mtbmom said: All I can say on this thread is that sadly my dc had personal experience in all the areas Tring just failed in, despite the school being challenged by me. They have acted swiftly because they had to - if an acceptable plan had not been put in place by January they could have been deregistered. The changes have been too slow for my DC who was mentally devastated by the time spent there but I hope that they will mean no other students have to suffer. My DC’s treatment while there will take a very long time to work through. Tring has the potential now to become a really great school. I am so sorry that your child has suffered whilst at Tring, mine did too, but thank goodness she had some lovely teachers. My daughter will not even talk about her time at Tring. My husband and I both raised serious concerns but in my opinion these fell on deaf ears and my daughter suffered for it. We only allowed her to stay there to complete her GCSEs, she achieved a place at Central where she was very happy. I can only see this school now improving, however I think the Senior Leadership Team should have dealt with all these very serious concerns years ago. Edited March 6, 2019 by Anna C Edited by Mods with Poster’s permission 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pas de Quatre Posted March 3, 2019 Author Share Posted March 3, 2019 On 18/02/2019 at 12:02, Anna C said: has an excellent track record for graduate employment, especially in the Musical Theatre industry It should be noted that the Musical Theatre department is entirely separate from the Dance department and is not affected by the problems under discussion. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Can I ask why my post has been removed. If it is because names have been mentioned, then other people have named teachers and I can see that their posts are allowed. This Ofsted report is public, are we not allowed to discuss? Should other parents not be made aware that it is important to speak out, the old attitude of develop a thick skin, keep quiet, being ignored if to thin or too big, etc etc is no longer acceptable. Children are children, they should be safeguarded at all times, emotionally and physically. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Tulip, I do understand your frustration but please be assured we are not just discussing one post but also the thread as a whole, and as we are a Committee of voluntary Moderators, we do wait for input from all Committee members. Not all of us are online at the same time so discussions can take time. Please bear with us and we will provide an update as soon as we are able. Kind regards, Anna C on behalf of Balletcoforum Moderators 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Thank you Anna. I will emphasise how important it is that it is no longer acceptable to put up with out of date attitudes, parents should understand that they do not have to put up with this, whichever school their child may attend. It is even worse if your child lives at a school seven days a week. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ballet4Boyz Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 I think all parents/guardians with children at vocational schools - especially those that board , would welcome transparency on issues as important as this whichever school they attend. We put our trust in these schools to nurture, care, train and educate our children. At the end of the day - they are exactly that ...... children !! They deserve nothing less than for parents working alongside dance teachers, academic teachers, boarding staff & school heads etc to be able to talk openly about problems in order to resolve them. Surely this is in everyone’s interests - the school, the parents & most of all the students. I don’t think this can be achieved with a culture of schools being defensive and not acting quickly and parents feeling they can’t approach the school for fear of repercussions. I agree with Tulip, that maybe the events surrounding Tring should act as a catalyst for change ....... it’s sadly too late for some students (and we all hear & know of these stories - not restricted to Tring) - but hopefully lessons can now be learnt across the vocational schools. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harwel Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 I think it’s difficult to discuss anything much on a public forum as things get misconstrued and hidden meanings imagined where none exist. And also certain rules need to be observed. I thought it a great shame that 2 highly informative threads where removed due to complaints by the schools themselves over the last 2 years/18 months. Again very important issues about the safety of our young dance students. This is not a comment about the forum rules but the fact the schools themselves wanted the threads stopped. Says masses about the schools concerned in my opinion. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 6, 2019 Share Posted March 6, 2019 On 03/03/2019 at 11:59, Tulip said: Can I ask why my post has been removed. If it is because names have been mentioned, then other people have named teachers and I can see that their posts are allowed. This Ofsted report is public, are we not allowed to discuss? Should other parents not be made aware that it is important to speak out, the old attitude of develop a thick skin, keep quiet, being ignored if to thin or too big, etc etc is no longer acceptable. Children are children, they should be safeguarded at all times, emotionally and physically. Following discussions, the post has been edited with Tulip’s permission and unhidden. Thank you for your patience, Kind regards, Anna C on behalf of Balletcoforum Moderators 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BalletcoForum Moderators Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Several posts in this thread have been removed for contravening our Acceptable Use Policy, or for responding to posts which contravened AUP. Details of the policy can be found here. Please take a moment to remind yourselves of the rules, particularly when discussing educational establishments. While we do not wish to hide this thread as it contains useful discussion about issues in the public eye, we will be left with no choice but to do so if posters cannot and will not abide by Forum rules. Balletcoforum Moderators Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BalletcoForum Moderators Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 A post on this thread has been hidden as it was deemed to be in breach of the Forum's Acceptable Use Policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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