I have a DD who turns 8 next Spring and we are thinking about letting her apply for vocational school for secondary. Quite early to be thinking probably, but we need to plan a bit for general logistics, finances and consider what classes she's doing now and whether to go for Y6 or Y7.
She's been attending a weekend class for 3.5 years where she does an hour each of drama, singing and dance, she's also done 2 years of ballet but we've had a few problems with those. Very happy with the Sunday classes, especially the singing teacher who is incredibly careful with their voices and what they are singing. She also does a choir after school once a week, but we've been advised not to have individual singing lessons till she's older. Singing is definitely her first love and her strongest area. Her current dream is to do musical theatre (and work in Burger King
)On the ballet front we've had issues - the first school kept cancelling the class at the last minute and so she never really got into it. Moved to another school and she was enjoying it and loved the teacher, they then brought in a new teacher and DD wasn't so keen. Then this year, the only class at her level was impossible to get to so we've had to put it on hold. DD is currently very keen to do other forms of dance, but has got a block over the ballet. The difference the class last year made to all the dancing she does was huge and the discipline was very good for her. She always bounced out of the class saying it was fun, but there was never excitement about going in the way that there is for singing.
The current primary school specialises in performing arts and have a dancer and musician in residence as well as lots of drama, singing competitions, choirs and so on, and they are very supportive of her having time off for auditions etc.
We've been very led by her over all of this - it's not an area my husband and I know much about. My father and brother were choristers, but that's a very different area of PA!
Sylvia Young's is the school that we are particularly interested in, and I've yet to hear a bad word about it from anyone who knows anything about it. I've signed DD up for one of their half-term classes so that we can see what she thinks, and I'm wondering about some of their Thursday evening classes.
The things I have questions about are:
- If DD doesn't do more ballet classes (she's keen to try jazz and tap), is that a major problem for auditions for vocational schools? Should I just treat it like music theory and say she has to take one class if she wants to do the other types and hope I find an inspiring teacher and she starts to love it again?
- DD is dyslexic - she's top of the class in maths, but struggles with things like spelling (high IQ but appalling working memory and processing speed isn't great). Current school are really on top of it and did all the testing and have started giving her lots of help - hope is that she will learn good coping skills and work arounds, but would be good to know if stage schools are reasonably good with this kind of thing or whether it would really count against her.
- We would probably be applying for a fee-paying place - it won't be easy to find the money, but we will manage and I feel that there are so many children who wouldn't have the opportunity at all without a scholarship that it would seem wrong to even try for one if we can afford it. How competitive is it for non-scholarship places? Are children who get in on full-fees seen as less talented - or is it just that the scholars are seen as super-talented?
- I saw that Sylvia's takes children in Y6 and Y7. DD's current primary is brilliant, she's really happy there and ideally we'd like to keep her there with all her friends until the end of Y6. However, the secondary schools local to aren't great. Is there a big difference in how hard it is to get a place in Y7 compared with Y6?
Apologies for the huge essay and many thanks in advance for any help and advice!
