Hammond Lower School Auditions for 2020

[Betty’s mum 13]

Nothing in post... 

[Milzmam 14]

No nothing, keep checking my emails x

[SpinningBoy 1]

not a sausage!

[Miss Tutu 1]

Least we are not alone I suppose this wait is so long 😫

[Betty’s mum 13]

Has anyone emailed or phoned? 

[SpinningBoy 1]

14 minutes ago, Betty’s mum said:

Has anyone emailed or phoned? 

I emailed the registrar early this afternoon. They must be very busy or could still be working through the MDS offers. I don't want to message again.

[Miss Tutu 1]

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 

[Betty’s mum 13]

23 minutes ago, SpinningBoy said:

I emailed the registrar early this afternoon. They must be very busy or could still be working through the MDS offers. I don't want to message again.

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

[Mummy twinkle toes 294]

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.

[Betty’s mum 13]

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. 

[Ellera 4]

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 April 23, 2020 by Ellera

[Dancemum1 9]

@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

[Betty’s mum 13]

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 

[Mummy twinkle toes 294]

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. 
🤔🤗

[Flower 7]

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

[Ellera 4]

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

[Jan McNulty 20,487]

Hello Ellera and welcome to the Forum, albeit telling us your not good news.

[Dancemum1 9]

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.

 

[Betty’s mum 13]

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. 

[SpinningBoy 1]

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.

[Milzmam 14]

Not received our email yet either 

[SpinningBoy 1]

29 minutes ago, Milzmam said:

Not received our email yet either 

Could be going out in year group order... will let you know when I hear anything. 

[Milzmam 14]

5 minutes ago, SpinningBoy said:

Could be going out in year group order... will let you know when I hear anything. 

Thanks x

[Mummy twinkle toes 294]

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.

 

[Mummy twinkle toes 294]

We were for yr9 place if that helps.

I suspect bursary had changed as it hasn’t appeared on their website this last year.

I would assume that most schools will be tightening their belts at this time. We have family that work in private education and most are charging 50% of the fees this term so income for them is down.

[Farawaydancer 326]

42 minutes ago, Mummy twinkle toes said:

We were for yr9 place if that helps.

I suspect bursary had changed as it hasn’t appeared on their website this last year.

I would assume that most schools will be tightening their belts at this time. We have family that work in private education and most are charging 50% of the fees this term so income for them is down.

Hammond are still charging full fees. 

[Ellera 4]

I thought this might be helpful for those who have not received a letter yet.  My daughter was applying for year 7-it was a generic email to so maybe sent out to year 7 only??  With others years to follow?

 

This is cut and paste of the letter we received:

 

It was ccompanied by a financial form which requires alot of detail.

 

April 2020
 
Dear Parents
 
I hope you are your families are keeping safe and well in these unprecedented times.
 
The MDS awards I offered to applicants have now been accepted.  If any award is declined between now and the end of August, we will let eligible applicants know.
 
The Hammond finance team, in conjunction with the Dance panel are prepared to look at requests for some fee remission for the remaining applicants on the reserve list.  Please be aware that we do not have a scholarship or bursary fund so you would be making a considerable financial commitment were you to accept our offer of a place.
 
We will look at applicants primarily on their audition scores.  Only after the panel have assessed this, will our Finance team look at income to judge the amount of fee remission we can offer.
 
I am attaching a financial information form for your completion.  Please return this to me electronically as we do not have access to the regular post delivered to school.
 
Once the form is returned, I will pass it on to the team and will have no further part in the decision.
 
Please bear with the Team while they look at our applicants, we are working remotely and things are slightly less accessible than from within school.  Once they have made decisions, they will contact you and in the meantime, will be unable to answer individual queries.
 
I do understand the anxieties, especially for parents of children in Year 6 who need to make a decision about which school their child is attending for Year 7 onwards.  We will make our best efforts to advise you as soon as possible, but there are many people involved in each decision.
 
Kind regards
 
Denise Charles

 

Hope its of some use, E x

Edited April 23, 2020 by Ellera

[Mummy twinkle toes 294]

We got the same one x

[Miss Tutu 1]

Just received mine ,  I don't hold out much hope unfortunately  😪

[Milzmam 14]

Does anyone know whether this letter is the same as what previous years have received or whether it is different? Unfortunately dds dream seems to be slipping away 😥