Royal ballet school JA september start date?

[2peas]

HI everyone, I was just wondering if anyone might know when the JA term starts in September?  We have some events booked for the first 2 weekends of September and so now that dd got a JA place we are wondering if we will have to cancel these things as being a new girl she wouldn't want to miss the first class of the term.  I would phone them but I expect they are a bit busy at the moment and I don't want to bother them, so if anyone has a bit of an idea or from what the dates were last year that would be great!  Thanks..

[Frogsmum]

London started on 8th Sept last year. Congratulations on your place, and enjoy the journey!

[2peas]

Ok thanks for posting that, it gives me more of an idea that it won't be far off from around that date I guess.

[outofmydepth]

Has anybody had their pack of information with the start date yet? Do all fortnightly children go on the same day? And finally does anyone know the Birmingham class times please?

 

Thank you in advance x

[Snape]

Hi,

 

We don't have anything yet.

I was just wondering if anyone knew what time the Manchester JA Friday lessons started. Just trying to work out what time we will have to set off/miss school as we live in the sticks miles and miles away!

Thanks.

[abitwornout]

Hi, we have had nothing yet either for Manchester JA start times/date etc . Hope that letter comes soon :-)

[Dancing2003]

Rec'd our information pack yesterday dd starts on sat 7th sept at Eastleigh

[outofmydepth]

Thank you Dancing 2003. I will keep my fingers crossed ours arrives today x

[Snape]

Me too!!

[outofmydepth]

Time to stalk the postman again!!!!

[abitwornout]

Ours has arrived today for Manchester :-)

[Snape]

That is not fair! I don't get home until late tonight. abitwornout does it say what time are the Friday JA lessons at manchester?

Thanks

[abitwornout]

Hello Snape, it says group 2 (my dd will be y6) that the Fridays (and Sundays) are 10.00am - 12.15 ! A bit of a surprise as I had kind of wrongly assumed they would be after school . The start date is Sunday 22nd Sept xx

[Snape]

Yes big surprise for us too. Did not realise we would have to miss so many Fridays off school/work. We are at 13.15 but will have to set off at least 2 hours before and hope for no traffic. I thought that was maybe just the Sunday time but there is no other time on the form, so must be both. Am I missing something?

I seem to remember someone saying they had to leave school early to get there, I wrongly assumed that they would start about 4. Hope the head teacher is in a good mood when I tell him ekkk.

Quite a late start, I think the other centres start earlier.

[abitwornout]

I also thought it was just a Sunday time at first, but I've looked through (hoping to find a later time somewhere) and cannot find one so I guess it must be the same time on both days! Hope school is OK with this as I'd told them dd wouldn't have to miss much school. It is quite a late start date. Good luck with your head teacher Snape . I think I'll have to volunteer to help at the school summer fair and then drop it into the conversation ha ha :-)

[amber21]

Yes big surprise for us too. Did not realise we would have to miss so many Fridays off school/work. We are at 13.15 but will have to set off at least 2 hours before and hope for no traffic. I thought that was maybe just the Sunday time but there is no other time on the form, so must be both. Am I missing something?

I seem to remember someone saying they had to leave school early to get there, I wrongly assumed that they would start about 4. Hope the head teacher is in a good mood when I tell him ekkk.

Quite a late start, I think the other centres start earlier.

Hi while my dd has been a Ja even though our classes are on sats the school have been quite accepting of her taking time off for work shops and visits with the royal ballet, I am sure it is classed as vocational, same as ballet and music exams, my dd has 2 friends who are elite gymnasts and they leave school every week to attend class.

Ax

[Legseleven]

Do the Manchester JAs have 2 sessions per week then, Friday and Sunday? Is this the norm at other centres as well? I thought they had switched to Sundays. It did stop us applying for Manchester JAs when we found out that the classes were Fridays during the day.

[abitwornout]

Hello Legseleven, the classes are either a Sunday or a Friday. So only one session per week. I am certain DD's school will be fine as they have been very supportive. I had just assumed they would be after school and hadn't even thought of the possibility of some being during the day. ( the naivety of a newbie) but it'll be fine and we can work round work etc :-)

[Legseleven]

Oh I see - I did think two classes per week sounded a lot (although fantastic ;-))

 

When we considered it a few years ago, the classes were Fridays and although DD has always done very well at school, her academic school would not have been thrilled for her to be off every Friday. A mixture of Fridays and Sundays would have been much more palatable!

 

Wishing your DDs a wonderful time in JAs, abitwornout and Snape!

[abitwornout]

Thank you Legseleven , I too just hope my dd Has a wonderful time and makes new friends. She is very lucky to have the opportunity to do this x

[Snape]

Thanks Legseleven, DD is so excited.

Will have to work out tonight how many Fridays she will miss and go and talk to the head master. She has longer holidays, so might not be too bad.  She finishes this Thursday so I will have to get a move on! I am sure he will be OK about it, just a bit worried because she is really academic and has an academic scholarship to attend. Although the school is big on ( and very good at)  educating the whole child so fingers crossed.

DD would like to spend every hour of her life dancing! Sometimes I wish she would just stop for a minute! Port de bra at the dinner table, split leaps while I am ironing

Edited June 21, 2013 by Snape

[outofmydepth]

Still no letter here! Has anybody had a Birmingham letter?

[Moomin]

I wonder how rbs can justify organising lessons where children will regularly have to miss an entire day of school. Surely they could organise it for weekends or evenings. Bizarre!

[LinMM]

I was just thinking this yesterday when reading this thread. Looks like they are running so many associate classes they just can't fit them in at the weekends. At least it's a Friday pm and not another day in the week I suppose. But schools in general are getting stricter about non attendance even though this is of course at least good reason etc.

Does it put that much stress on DC's to then catch up with work missed as well as usual homework?

Some can probably take this in their stride but maybe depends on year they are in and how much extra work will have to do etc.

[Billyelliott]

Wow so glad ours were on a Saturday - we would never have got away with that amount of authourised leave - especially with other dance / music exams and festivals etc !!!!

[abitwornout]

Just handed in the dates to school for them to look at. It amounts to 10 Friday mornings (for us)off school in total as some fall on holiday dates. They seemed quite positive :-)

[meadowblythe]

we were in this position many (many!) years ago - there was no way I could have taken the time off as I work in education.  We rang the RBS and they were able to find us an alternative place.  If memory serves we had a choice of two but chose Birmingham.  So don't panic too soon if the Friday place is not viable. 

[JulieW]

We certainly couldn't have done it either because of work (the school wouldn't have been happy, but would probably have let them go - in years 5 & 6 I'm not sure they did anything particularly constructive on a Friday afternoon  )

[Circe]

I'm really surprised that some JAs are on a Friday morning. I thought one of the objectives of JAs was opening access and widening participation and this seems to mitigate against that.

[Tulip]

There is no way on earth my daughter head would allow time off school other than hospital appointment even dental appointment were frowned upon as we were told that pupils had so many holidays to arrange such matters. If we didn't like it then the principles attitude was go to another school. At least we all understood the rules right from the beginning.

[outofmydepth]

10 Fridays mornings/afternoons spead over a whole year of school should be manageable. I have to agree about dentist appointments there are plenty of holidays to fit them in, unless you need braces or major treatment.   The children who appear in panto's round here will miss more days of school in the 6 week run from November to January and these are always authorised, and afterall the classes are vocational and should be seen as part of their personal development. I think we would be authorised all weeks except the SATs weeks but that is a whole other soapbox I would need to get on!!!!

 

I also agree with JulieW its year 5 and 6 they should manage.

[outofmydepth]

Our letter has arrived for Birmingham fortnightly classes, start date is the 14th September in the afternoon.

[Snape]

Well, I photocopied the dates for school and handed them in. One reception lady was really pleased and encouraging " wow isn't it great" the other said " you are only allowed 10 days off a year" and not so encouraging, I did explain it is classed as education not a day off.

 

 

 

Anyway, I was a bit apprehensive this morning when I went to see the Head (also had to tell him she needed another afternoon off for a ballet exam) But I shouldn't have worried he was lovely and said he thought it is very important to support her in this and they will go out of their way to help FEW!!

 

 

 

She will be able to do Maths and English in the morning but will then have to set off. She will catch up with any work and I am super strict about school work, so should be fine. I feel very relieved now.