Vocational upper school sept 2020 entry

[Guest]

Can anyone help tell me more about Hammond upper school? I’ve seen lots of posts about it and read the website but would love some more informal feedback.  

 

I’ve found this forum to be a treasure trove of lovely people and useful supporting information, so thank you to everyone who posts! I am doing research on upper schools. Happy to share whatever I learn about dates and so forth. 

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Anything specific you'd like to know? 

[2dancersmum]

My DD went to Hammond upper school and graduated in 2015, happy to answer any questions you may have although I appreciate there might have been some changes since then as the MT degree was not available then. She did the Trinity level 6 diploma in Professional Dance alongside 2 A levels. The first year was all diploma students together and this then split into dance and musical theatre stands for years 2 and 3.

 

I believe they have an Open Day at the end of September and in January (26th) they have free Boys Masterclass Day for 11-18 year olds - you need to email to pre-register and they send out details closer to the time.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

The main change that has affected dd this year is that they split the courses early (after Easter) so whereas previously the 1st years did both the full musical and the dance show this year they have only done one or the other.  The majority of classes have been separate since the split.

 

Ballet and jazz is streamed into A & B and tap is streamed across all four years. I dont think contemporary was streamed.  My dd chose the MT course and prior to splitting was in B ballet and A jazz.  On the dance course ballet featured quite  heavily (too heavily for her really but she has less now she is on the MT strand) with contemporary, jazz, tap singing and there were some drama classes but not that many.   Most of the people in A ballet were around Adv 1/2 but they are not syllabus classes. Dd was in B Ballet, she had passed Intermediate in Year 9 but her pointework was not strong enough to take Adv 1.  You can attend optional, free syllabus early/late classes in all three genres.  There was an MT ensemble/repertoire class and the obligatory supporting studies which used to be called Integrated Profssional Studies but is now caslled something like Employability Skills, Professional Practice, Research & Reflection.

[2dancersmum]

In my DD's 1st year they were effectively split after Easter into dance or mt and had the majority of their classes separately and only did one of the end of year shows - the full musical or the dance show depending on which course had been chosen - so that seems to be a change back to what it was originally.

 

Tap streamed for all years (A-D) and ballet and jazz streamed into A + B for the first year, I believe contemporary followed the ballet streaming. There is certainly a lot more ballet and more contemporary on the dance course than the mt course as the classes in these genres increase from the first year for dance students even though the number decreases for mt students.

[Guest]

Thank you!!! 

[Guest]

12 hours ago, Picturesinthefirelight said:

Anything specific you'd like to know? 

No just general! Everyone’s answers have been super enlightening