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Hammond Lower School Auditions for 2020


Izzy_Ballet

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10 minutes ago, Milzmam said:

Has anyone heard anything or had any correspondence since the initial reserve list emails? I appreciate they will be busy sorting things for existing pupils but would really like to know what next steps are 

I’ve not received any correspondence  yet.

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Its such a strange time for everyone I understand they are extremely busy and  they need to  sort their current students out which I totally understand , Im just inpatient and want to know what the future holds  and the options if any available 

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5 minutes ago, Betty’s mum said:

That was why I asked before I phoned, don’t want to keep hassling them x

You are in a different position though in that you have the MDS. You need to know what their plans are especially if you have accepted.👏🏻👏🏻


The registrar may be off currently. No one knows. We lost a very good colleague to Covid 19 suddenly on Friday night. I work in University and we are still interviewing candidates but no one knows whether we will open or commence online for September.

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7 minutes ago, Mummy twinkle toes said:

You are in a different position though in that you have the MDS. You need to know what their plans are especially if you have accepted.👏🏻👏🏻


The registrar may be off currently. No one knows. We lost a very good colleague to Covid 19 suddenly on Friday night. I work in University and we are still interviewing candidates but no one knows whether we will open or commence online for September.

I am so sorry to hear that, very sad. That is the thing we have no idea what is going on anywhere and any requests are irrelevant compared to the suffering going on. 

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I have just had financial letter and forms come through.  I feel so sad, all MDS awards accepted.  No chance for my daughter now, as we know based on the figures they gave us at the open day we will not qualify for any financial help with the fees, as our income it too high.  But no way we can pay them in full, even if we sold our house.  I really feel for everyone, this has been a very stressful time and feel the lack of communication from Hammond has made it far worse.  It seems a harsh and inhuman system.  There has to be a competetive element to it all, but they could do alot better with making the process clear from the start and supporting families through it.  It has come as a bit of a shock to me, I did not expect my daughter to be offered a place at all but we supported her to audition as it was her dream to go to Hammond.  We helped her prepare so it would be a good audition experience for her and we wanted her to have aspirations; she worked really hard for 6 months and to our shock and delight she was accepted.  The rest has all been a bit of an emotional whirlwind.

 

I wish you all good luck, both those with confirmed MDS places and those hoping to get MDS or bursaries. I hope we will hear some good news for you.  Some MDS places may become available later on, fingers and toes crossed.  Most important of all-keep fighting.  The system never changes unless we do something about it.

Edited by Ellera
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@Ellera sadly I think there will be alot of us in a position where either won't be able to access financial help or even with financial help it's a huge struggle, feeling very disheartened at the moment with it all feels like it's accessable of you're from a background of privilege. Keeping everything crossed for good news further down the line.

 

Looks like we should all receive the same sort of thing in the post tomorrow then.

@Mummy twinkle toes sorry for your loss. Stay safe everyone x

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27 minutes ago, Ellera said:

I have just had financial letter and forms come through.  I feel so sad, all MDS awards accepted.  No chance for my daughter now, as we know based on the figures they gave us at the open day we will not qualify for any financial help with the fees, as our income it too high.  But no way we can pay them in full, even if we sold our house.  I really feel for everyone, this has been a very stressful time and feel the lack of communication from Hammond has made it far worse.  It seems a harsh and inhuman system.  There has to be a competetive element to it all, but they could do alot better with making the process clear from the start and supporting families through it.  It has come as a bit of a shock to me, I did not expect my daughter to be offered a place at all but we supported her to audition as it was her dream to go to Hammond.  We helped her prepare so it would be a good audition experience for her and we wanted her to have aspirations; she worked really hard for 6 months and to our shock and delight she was accepted.  The rest has all been a bit of an emotional whirlwind.

 

I wish you all good luck, both those with confirmed MDS places and those hoping to get MDS or bursaries. I hope we will hear some good news for you.  Some MDS places may become available later on, fingers and toes crossed.  Most important of all-keep fighting.  The system never changes unless we do something about it.

So sorry to hear that news, but in the current climate things may shrill change. One thing I think we have all all learnt is there is no certainty in anything at the moment. Many threads have people speaking of MDS award becoming available as late as August xx 

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32 minutes ago, Ellera said:

I have just had financial letter and forms come through.  I feel so sad, all MDS awards accepted.  No chance for my daughter now, as we know based on the figures they gave us at the open day we will not qualify for any financial help with the fees, as our income it too high.  But no way we can pay them in full, even if we sold our house.  I really feel for everyone, this has been a very stressful time and feel the lack of communication from Hammond has made it far worse.  It seems a harsh and inhuman system.  There has to be a competetive element to it all, but they could do alot better with making the process clear from the start and supporting families through it.  It has come as a bit of a shock to me, I did not expect my daughter to be offered a place at all but we supported her to audition as it was her dream to go to Hammond.  We helped her prepare so it would be a good audition experience for her and we wanted her to have aspirations; she worked really hard for 6 months and to our shock and delight she was accepted.  The rest has all been a bit of an emotional whirlwind.

 

I wish you all good luck, both those with confirmed MDS places and those hoping to get MDS or bursaries. I hope we will hear some good news for you.  Some MDS places may become available later on, fingers and toes crossed.  Most important of all-keep fighting.  The system never changes unless we do something about it.

What figures did they give before no financial help? I do not think they stated this on the last audition date.

Unfortunately, it isn’t that fair a system. We will complete forms as might as well pursue it. 
🤔🤗

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If we have all paid the registration fee that we had to for the 2nd audition, then we are all *theoretically* starting there in September. I think given that, then the service we have had is pretty poor. Not even an email to say ‘sorry we‘re taking so long’. I don’t believe any other independent schools are treating their new intake like this, and all such schools near me are running full timetables online and with zoom. That said I’m still desperate!

Best wishes All x

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Hi Mummy Twinkle Toes

 

When we went to open morning in September, we spoke to finance and they showed us the scale for the bursary for non MDS award families.  50 percent was given for incomes 0 to 30k with a sliding scale according to income. If you are over 80 k then there is nothing.  However I think this scale was for 2019/2020, and from what Denise Charles has said on the audition day it may well be different for 2020/2021.  From the letter sent by Hammond this afternoon they will look at applicants audition marks in the first instance, before deciding on financial support based on income.

 

The financial forms and letter came through by email, so hopefully others will get these soon too.

 

Thankyou for kind words from many.  I agree it has been quite a poor service.  They should be able to respond to individual enquiries even if Covid 19 makes working conditions a bit tricky.  I am not keen to go through this process again, my daughter's reaction to it all is to want to audition again next year!  Arghh!

 

Sorry to hear of your sad news Mummy Twinkle Toes.  Helps to put this into perspective, as my husband would say all this ballet stuff is a first world problem.  Important but not fundamental.

 

Good luck to everyone.  x

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Just checked we've had our email, same as what yours has said. I feel it's poor correspondence to be honest and alot of people may want to know where their child is on the list to help in going forward ie how likely they are next on the list for an mds.

 

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All I can think is that in this financial situation, maybe they are holding back funds to help existing parents if jobs are lost, wages decreased and extra assistance needed etc. I know this is similar in the school I work for. It does not really help, but it could be a reason for the change in bursary allocation. 

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14 minutes ago, Betty’s mum said:

All I can think is that in this financial situation, maybe they are holding back funds to help existing parents if jobs are lost, wages decreased and extra assistance needed etc. I know this is similar in the school I work for. It does not really help, but it could be a reason for the change in bursary allocation. 

That’s what I considered too.  I think they probably have existing pupils who will need additional financial support at this time and they (retention of existing children) will understandably be priority over new intake. Not received our email yet.

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2 hours ago, Ellera said:

Hi Mummy Twinkle Toes

 

When we went to open morning in September, we spoke to finance and they showed us the scale for the bursary for non MDS award families.  50 percent was given for incomes 0 to 30k with a sliding scale according to income. If you are over 80 k then there is nothing.  However I think this scale was for 2019/2020, and from what Denise Charles has said on the audition day it may well be different for 2020/2021.  From the letter sent by Hammond this afternoon they will look at applicants audition marks in the first instance, before deciding on financial support based on income.

 

The financial forms and letter came through by email, so hopefully others will get these soon too.

 

Thankyou for kind words from many.  I agree it has been quite a poor service.  They should be able to respond to individual enquiries even if Covid 19 makes working conditions a bit tricky.  I am not keen to go through this process again, my daughter's reaction to it all is to want to audition again next year!  Arghh!

 

Sorry to hear of your sad news Mummy Twinkle Toes.  Helps to put this into perspective, as my husband would say all this ballet stuff is a first world problem.  Important but not fundamental.

 

Good luck to everyone.  x

Thank you that is really helpful.

 

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