DaDa question

[paulc]

Hi, quick question on DaDa's.

I understand how they are allocated etc but if a school has say 40 places, how many will be offered a DaDa? Appreciate there are no exact answers but is it roughly 10%, 25%, 50%?

 

Thanks

 

[Pas de Quatre]

Depends on the school - some have a more generous funding allocation for DaDas than others

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Each school is allocated a certain pot of money. The actual amount depends on various factors but is different for each school. The schools each decide the size of their intake too so percentages are difficult. Eg if school A allocates 20 DaDas and has 30 students in total but School B might have 20 DaDas but their intake is 60 students. 

 

What i did do was to look up the OFSTED report for each school and that tells you the total number of students at the time of inspection and the number of students in receipt of a DaDa. Some are a bit out of date now though. 

[2dancersmum]

It used to be a set number of awards per school (varying) but as Pictures says the school is now allocated a pot of money rather than a number of awards. The other factor that affects how many students get a DADA in any given year is down to the fact that the amount of DADA allocated depends on parental income. Students are assessed on talent not finances but a year where say the top 10 all need full DADA and all accept their places, the school  might then only be able to award DADAs to those 10 students. In a year group when the top 10 only get a small amount each from the schools DADA allocation of money that would mean money still in the pot to offer to student number 11, perhaps 12 too and so on. Note - I have picked the number 10 at random and not as an indication that I know how many students would get one.

 

[balletbean]

Whilst I appreciate the support from the UK Gov who created the DaDa. I only wish our local education dept could do the same. But I can see the allocation procedure very stressful. Auditioning at several schools then being offered a place but then having to await notification if you are going to be awarded funding (aka DaDa). Which could turn out not to be your personal choice of school but have to settle on where the funding is.
 

Living just outside UK jurisdiction but still part of GB all students apply directly to the local Student Finance Dept at Education run by the local Government. Based on certain criteria a student is then allocated funding (sliding scale subject to parental income). The student can then source their own institute be it vocational or academic route. Not relying on the schools/colleges/Unis to make that decision for them. 
All funding is made in the form of a Grant. 
 

The down side Is that our local authority have now set the max Grant to be equal to a standard University Degree. Which as we all know falls well short of Vocational US fees. 
 

Maintenance is also a standard amount which doesn’t reflect increase costs for those pupils based in London. 
 

Would be great if both Governments could meet in the middle and blend both kinds of funding and allocation to offer the best service to all. 
 

[Peanut68]

2dancersmum - thank you for your concise summing up in much more understandable way than if managed to come up with for myself! Am sure many of us on here will find this enlightening....

Sad thing is there just does not seem to be a perfect solution or way to predict as so much dependant on economic demographic of each individual year group...

[Pups_mum]

I've said it before and I will say it again.....I really wish the government would just do away with DaDAs and make student loans available for Level 6 Diplomas as well as degrees. It would make things so much simpler all round. Dancers would be able to apply for courses that they really wanted to do, not just the ones their parents can afford, nobody would be faced with that horrid situation of being offered a place at their dream school but without funding, and the schools would know where they stand sooner too as people wouldn't keep multiple offers open whilst waiting for funding decisions.

When I take over the world I will change things. 😋 ( Well obviously I would make all education free for everyone ideally, but failing that I would level the playing field a bit at least.)