balletmadmom Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 I just wanted to say well done to the Young Dancers Academy for getting 25% of all their total students to the Royal Ballet School Finals this year! Not only that, but for the second year running, 3 of their students have been taken into White Lodge and one of their students is in the semi-finals for Young British Dancer of the Year too. They are clearly doing something very right. My daughter chose to go their three years ago, when we did not want her to board at Elmhurst and it has been the perfect vocational school for us. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gingerbread Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 I have seen their website and they sound fantastic, but the fees are prohibitive to us (assuming DD even got accepted). Do they give bursaries or scholarships does anyone know? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletla Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Not only that, but for the second year running, 3 of their students have been taken into White Lodge and one of their students is in the semi-finals for Young British Dancer of the Year too. They are clearly doing something very right. My daughter chose to go their three years ago, when we did not want her to board at Elmhurst and it has been the perfect vocational school for us. Do we take it that your DD was successful at White Lodge balletmadmom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) I thought YDA was for children up to Year 11, but I take it that YDA students have auditioned for White Lodge as well as Upper School? Do you mean that 25 % of YDA graduates have got finals for RBS Upper School? My friend's DD is at YDA and seems very happy there, but the fees are completely out of our league. Am I right in thinking they like very small year groups? Is it 8 children to a year? Edited March 4, 2012 by spannerandpony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jellybeans Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Out of interest, did ALL the YDA students that applied get finals? I did not think that YDA was a highly selective school, but these are fabulous results so as you say they must be doing something right! Was it girls or boys that were offered places and for what year group? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowan Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 YDA also didn't use to assess out, but I think they do now. DD knows someone who had to leave.I think it is eight pupils to a year. That sounds almost too small. What if you don't get on with anyone? Another London vocational day school that oddly doesn't get much mention on this forum is Arts Educational in Chiswick. I know a child who chose this over White Lodge, and they do offer some scholarships or bursaries.. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Mmm, I would LOVE to be able to afford to send DD to Arts Ed. :-) Might as well wish for the moon! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowan Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Two children I know who went there had full scholarships - didn't pay anything at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Fantastic! No boarding there though, is there? :-( Talking of YDA, anyone know where their 2011 Year 11 graduates are training? The website only shows 2008, 09 and '10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primrose Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 My dd was offered a scolarship for YDA and yes they do arrange boarding with very selected families. I found it to be a very small caring school. Anna Du Boisson knows and understands her pupils very well and seems to care for them greatly. She is the most unselfish teacher you will meet. If she sees a student who will benefit more by being trained at White Lodge then she will not hold onto them like other schools but will push them forward. It was unfortunate that we were unable to accept the place at YDA due to the fact that my dd had just started in yr10 and had just started her GCSEs. We had gone to the school to audition my dd for Annas out reach classes at the West London School of Dance and that is how the offer of a fulltime place came about. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletmadmom Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Hello again, so....let me answer the questions you have all posed: Their fees are not cheap, but nowhere near the price of Tring or Arts Ed. There is some funding, but not a great deal. Although, there is no boarding, some students lodge with other families. My daughter is an MA and when she auditioned for MAs, was invited to the White Lodge final (although she had not ticked the box). She did not get into White Lodge, but would not have boarded (not even for summer school), so it was probably a blessing. This year when she auditioned for SAs, she did not want to do the joint audition for White Lodge and SAs, so just did the single audition. I think about 6 students auditioned for White Lodge this year and 3 got into the final and they got into White Lodge. YDA goes up to Year 11 and there are 6 students roughly in each year and then they audition for upper school. My daughter is very happy there. I think that is it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletmadmom Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Primrose is absolutely right, Anna is a fantastic teacher, as are all of the teachers at YDA and it is very nuturing, which is ideal for my daughter. I was just going to say that YDA now have an associate scheme too, for those students who are unable to train full time there. And... the graduates from last year went to Central and Laines. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nina G. Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Re. Ms. Du Boison: I recently read somewhere that The Royal Ballet ballerina Yasmine Naghdi, and winner of "The Young British Dancer of the Year 2009" took after school classes in Notting Hill with Ms Du Boison (before Yasmine was invited to join the Royal Ballet School). This was before YDA existed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Thank you. :-). Still slightly confused about the RBS figures though with your original post saying about a quarter of all students getting RBS finals - could you clarify that? :-). Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletmadmom Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Sorry to confuse everyone. 7 students overall have been invited to the Royal Ballet School finals over Lower School and Upper School. The Upper School finals are still to come, but those invited to Lower School finals all got a place. Sorry to be confusing. There are 28 students at YDA, so 25% of them were invited to finals. I hope that makes sense. Of course, the other 75% were not auditioning anyway. Finally, although it was before my time, Yasmine Naghdi was a pupil of Anna's at West London School of Dance, which is the other part of the school doing after school and Saturday classes at Danceworks, The Mercury in Notting Hill and the school house in Bulwer Street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Ah, thank you. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 How many hours per day so the students train? Is the accademic side attatched to the dance school, and sorry for the questions does she offer 6th form places? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletmadmom Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Hello Tulip, My daughter does an academic class and then 1.5 hours of ballet in the weekday mornings (except Friday is jazz). Then academics until 3.30 and three evenings a week another 1.5 hour ballet class. There is also a two hour ballet class on Saturday am, followed by tap and singing. They all then audition in year 11 for upper school (sixth form) at their chosen schools:- Royal, ENB, Central, Laines, Elmhurst, etc. Happy to answer your questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulip Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Thankyou Balletmadmom, the school seems very impressive, and having such small class numbers makes it even more impressive. Success rate obviously speaks volumes of the schools training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Wow - congratulations to YDA's William Beagley who has reached the finals of Young British Dancer of the Year (see thread in News section). Such an achievement for all the talented dancers, but especially someone so young and not already at RBS. So good to see students from other schools "in the mix" at YBDY. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 *Sighs*....we'll just have to wait for a lottery win... :-( 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletmadmom Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yes, brilliant for William to get to the final of YBDY. Everyone at YDA is so proud of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pavlala Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 My child was one of the 'Whitelodge Three'! In one short year,the warmth and support given by YDA has overwhelmed me in its generosity. Anna and Kerry and their staff instill a happy courage and zeal to learn. My DD has blossomed socially and academically and she has adored her ballet teachers. I can't praise them enough! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Stop it, you're all making me feel really poor and inadequate! ;-) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisadebs Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Pavlala - congratulations to your DD and her friends, wishing them all the best at White Lodge Spanner - your comment made me smile, sometimes I think the ballet world is just designed to do that to a parent 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 You're not alone Spanner - I was thinking the same Sounds like a lovely place and "lucky you" to those there (I wonder if people are put off even applying because it looks unaffordable, as they wouldn't know about the possibility of scholarships/bursaries) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sophika9899 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I agree with JulieW. It never hurts to audition for YDA as Anna would never turn away a talented young dancer who is willing to work hard. As far as I know there are sometimes scholarships available. My DD is also at YDA and has been there since last September. She was previously at a normal secondary and doing extremely well academically while attending Anna's non vocational classes at West London school of dance every evening. It was a huge decision to take her out of her school and put her into YDA but it is a decision we don't regret for a minute. She has never been happier. Her ballet has improved 100 per cent due to the fantastic training she is receiving and she is flourishing academically. What's more the atmosphere in the school is incredible. There are very few cliques everyone is so friendly and the discipline is quite high. The students are (mostly!) beautifully behaved and look out for each other. It is small and the facilities nowhere near as impressive as other vocational schools but I am of the opinion that a warm nurturing environment with first class teaching is far more important than the number of studios and chemistry labs. Having said that, the school is expanding its premises in the very near future so the children will be able to spread out. Can't recommend it enough. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletmadmom Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 Morning, I just wanted to add that another student from YDA has been taken into White Lodge from the finals last week, so 4! Amazing. About the fees, I do understand, but I am sure that YDA are much more reasonably priced than most vocational schools. I am sure that when my daughter was offered Tring three years ago, the non boarding fees were about £23k. Obviously it would have been cheaper for me to send her to Elmhurst, as she had funding, but I believe that she would not have been as happy or nutured and I would have spent £100 a week in petrol collecting her for the weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 To be fair, the fact that YDA's fees are "only" £3,500 a term compared to Tring's £6,100 a term doesn't make it any more affordable to many of us! I struggle to pay my DD's fees for her local training, Associate Classes, singing lessons, EYB, Easter Schools etc. and even added together that comes to about a tenth of YDA's termly fees. Reasonably priced to many people but to my husband and I it might as well be £3 million a term. It's nice to hear about scholarships but as far I know, there is no info on the website about it...is that true? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Oops, just redid my sums - total comes to about a sixth of YDA's termly fees, not a tenth! Still couldn't find the rest plus travel though so it's no better. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowan Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 YDA's fees are on a par with many a London private day school, and considering you get the dance education too, and a top quality one at that (or a dance education with academics thrown in as well) it seems good value (for those that could afford it anyway, which we sadly can't!) I have to say, though, I've always found ballet schools to be keen to help out with bursaries, free lessons or, at the very least, staggered payments. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Oh I know Rowan, believe me, I would let DD audition if we could afford it; it does sound like a lovely school. I appreciate that and the fact that it's good value in that it's a lot cheaper than other Vocational Schools. But staggered payments or not, it's still WAY out of reach for many of us. It's a bit like saying that Louis Vuitton luggage is good value when compared to other more expensive makes - still doesn't make it remotely affordable for those of us who have to scrimp and save to afford Samsonite. :-) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balletmadmom Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 I do understand and it is not that we are wealthy. We have three other children too, so we do struggle, but thankfully they are all at state school/college. I was already paying out nearly £3,000 a year in dancing fees before she joined YDA, for local dancing, associates, summer courses, etc. Of course, it means that all holidays are very cheap, as we just land on relatives for weeks at a time! However, it would definitely be worth contacting YDA though and I do think that there is another student who comes in from Hertfordshire. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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