DaDa Awards

[MrsKrabz]

Hello, just really hoping someone can simplify the Dada scheme for me 🤔. as just wondering how does it get allocated? Eg if someone who gets allocated it then doesn’t take up their place at that school does it get reallocated to someone else next on the list?  Do you pay it back like SFE ? Does it come with a maintenance loan ? How long does the whole process take ?
 

[Lifeafterballet]

I can only explain how Elmhurst told me how they allocate it.

They said they do the audition and list the children from 1 to 20 say in order of who they want. They start at 1 and allocate them as much of the DaDa pot as they need, then they move onto 2, 3 and so on until the pot is empty. If a child in the list is over the threshold they are just offered a place. 
Unlike other USs Elmhurst’s accommodation is included in the Dada so no maintenance fees are needed. For us it worked out about the same contribution as when the children were on the MDS. 
The DaDa is not repayable and doesn’t affect your child applying for a student loan to attend university later on if they so choose. 
If a child who has been allocated money from the DaDa pot drops out that gets offered to the next in need of a DaDa student on the list. 
 

[MrsKrabz]

Thank you for your help ❤️Just finding the whole process super stressful 😕

[Jan McNulty]

I've added the tag DADA at the top of the thread.  It brings up loads of previous threads where there may be useful information.

[Jewel]

Dada is different to MDS in that each school/college don't have a set number of awards they have a "pot" of money.  When you first audition most place will ask you to fill in a self-declaration of income, this is so the school can work out roughly how much DaDa you will need.  As cotes says they rank all succesful applicants in order from 1 to whatever and start offering DaDa's from the top down.  If a lot of people on the list are high income then the pot of money will go further ie they can offer more awards but if lot of people are low income it will run out sooner.

 

When you are actually offered a DaDa you then fill out all the proper forms where you have to send off P60's etc  This table shows how much you might get. It was quite late on when dd's exact award and our contribution was actually confirmed. The fees part of the award are paid direct to the school/college.  It's not a loan so you don't have to pay it back.  Only those on the lowest income get a maintenance amount.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dance-and-drama-awards-income-scales/dance-and-drama-awards-income-scales-2018-to-2019-academic-year