Does anyone have a child who has gone to Performing Arts college post 16 ?

[Evil queen]

This is the area my daughter wants to pursue as well- musical theatre I think would be her preference with dance being her favourite of the 3 disciplines. I’m completely like a fish out of water with it all and just hope we are doing all the right things to help her.
She’s danced since she was 3 and now does ballet, tap, modern, jazz, contemporary, commercial and acrobatic arts. She’s really flexible and now very strong.
She attends a once monthly musical theatre programme where they dance for 2 hours and do an hour and a half of either singing or acting with current west end performers/choreographers etc.
She’s doing drama gcse and will go on to do A-level. She’s decided that as there are no dance colleges near us that 16 would be too early for her to leave home (she turns 16 on 31st August) so she’s going to get A-levels under her belt which I think will help long term given how difficult it is to get into work in the industry. She’s done a couple of pantos, mainly as a dancer but also as part of the chorus and does all the school productions which are well regarded locally.
She’s starting singing lessons in September as it’s been a recently new idea for musical theatre- she can sing but needs some help on technique- I guess she will have had a year of lessons by audition time so hopefully that will have made a difference.
I don’t know what else we should be doing and to be fair I don’t know how many more things she can fit in! In January she didn’t have any days off from it at all between dance, panto rehearsals and performance, drama rehearsals for gcse and rehearsals for the school production she was never at home! Good practice for the real thing I suppose.
I’ll follow this with interest to see what else we can consider.

[floridasgirl]

Originally Posted by Evil queen

She’s doing drama gcse and will go on to do A-level. She’s decided that as there are no dance colleges near us

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I agree keeping options is a good idea but have you checked the local colleges? A lot near us do BTEC dance. It doesn't have to be a specialised dance school.
Dd is doing her GCSES this year. She wants to do backstage, probably lighting in either theatre or for concerts/TV.
She is doing A levels rather than the technical theatre btec just to keep her options open but I am already looking around for Uni options for her!

[Evil queen]

Originally Posted by floridasgirl

I agree keeping options is a good idea but have you checked the local colleges? A lot near us do BTEC dance. It doesn't have to be a specialised dance school.
Dd is doing her GCSES this year. She wants to do backstage, probably lighting in either theatre or for concerts/TV.
She is doing A levels rather than the technical theatre btec just to keep her options open but I am already looking around for Uni options for her!

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The 6th form at our local school has the best reputation performing arts wise locally although just for drama not dance. I think she will be experienced enough dance wise and have some UCAS points from her dance exams. There is a college that offers a dance qualification but they don’t have a great reputation unfortunately. I suppose the A-level drama gives her some balance.
We looked at the local offerings for the more technical aspects but she is certain that’s not an area she would want to do- she very much wants to be in front of the camera rather than behind it! It’d drive her mad watching others perform and not do it herself. I think that there are better opportunities though for people who have a desire to do the technical aspects- one of the tutors for the media btec we talked to said that women in particular are being encouraged.
I’ve been looking at Uni’s/conservatoires to suss out requirements which on appear she should be fine for but I think it will really all come down to audition.

[Minicooper]

My daughter attended Birmingham Ormiston Academy for 6th form and did the Musical Theatre BTEC, they also have a option to do additional A levels as well. She is now in her 1st year studying at the University of Chichester Conservatoire in Musical Theatre Performance.

A lot of local colleges do the extended BTEC's in performing arts as well so definitely worth looking at. I know a few who have moved away at 16 to either do a diploma or BTEC we were lucky that we are only a 30 min train journey fro Birmingham so DD could commute.

As everyone has said it is very competitive and going to "Move It" is a great idea as you can get load of information. It was definitely pushed at BOA that they should only be applying to the London schools Bird, Urdang, Mountview etc. DD wanted to do a degree as opposed to a diploma so that ruled a few out and also look at the costs of the degree courses as some for example are considerably more than the £9250 loan that you get from student finance. So again that ruled a few out, after auditioning at a wide variety of places and receiving several offers she fell in love with Chichester at the open day and the audition and preferred the University feel over the solely performing arts college. The course is very full on and a lot of her flat mates can't believe how many contact hours she has a week.

A lot of her friends only applied to all the top London schools and only a few got places a lot are doing Gap/Foundation year courses and reapplying this year. Again more often than not these courses are not covered by student finance.

[Vanillapod]

Originally Posted by Minicooper

My daughter attended Birmingham Ormiston Academy for 6th form and did the Musical Theatre BTEC, they also have a option to do additional A levels as well. She is now in her 1st year studying at the University of Chichester Conservatoire in Musical Theatre Performance.

A lot of local colleges do the extended BTEC's in performing arts as well so definitely worth looking at. I know a few who have moved away at 16 to either do a diploma or BTEC we were lucky that we are only a 30 min train journey fro Birmingham so DD could commute.

As everyone has said it is very competitive and going to "Move It" is a great idea as you can get load of information. It was definitely pushed at BOA that they should only be applying to the London schools Bird, Urdang, Mountview etc. DD wanted to do a degree as opposed to a diploma so that ruled a few out and also look at the costs of the degree courses as some for example are considerably more than the £9250 loan that you get from student finance. So again that ruled a few out, after auditioning at a wide variety of places and receiving several offers she fell in love with Chichester at the open day and the audition and preferred the University feel over the solely performing arts college. The course is very full on and a lot of her flat mates can't believe how many contact hours she has a week.

A lot of her friends only applied to all the top London schools and only a few got places a lot are doing Gap/Foundation year courses and reapplying this year. Again more often than not these courses are not covered by student finance.

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When I was checking a few details the other day I found something that suggested the possibility of the child claiming Universal Credit (assuming they are living away from home) for courses that aren’t recognised by the Student Loan Company so that’s something I keep meaning to check into the finer details of.
I had a quick look on the Govermnent website and couldn’t see that it was covered but some people had managed to claim it.
It appeared some boroughs were granting it and some not

[dizzy1]

I'm floundering with this too. My 12 year old son loves acting. It's his only outside interest. He attends a local youth amateur dramatics group and Razzamataz theatre school each week. He will never be a dancer (but is improving!) and he doesn't mind singing solos. My concern is that he is not academic at all, and so will not be able to stay on for sixth form. The nearest college that offers Performing Arts is a 2 hour journey away. We have 3 years until he finishes year 11, but it's weighing on my mind already.

[CazP]

My daughter is currently at Bodyworks in Cambridge.
She went at 18 as she wanted to have the back up of A levels first.

She has danced since a toddler and had singing lessons also, which definitely helped her with auditions.
She auditioned at others too but she got funding for Bodywork and decided on that one.
She's in her second year and loves it.

I'd suggest going to open days if they have them. Some colleges have open days where they have sample classes the students can try.
This also will give them a feel for the place as well as some of the staff.
Free to ask any questions

[Orlando 2004]

No idea about any courses etc as my daughter doesn't do performing arts but we do have the Wilkes Academy near us. They have some of their move it performances on their website so I've provided a link for anyone thinking of this sort of thing.
wilkesacademy/performances/

[mskitty]

Wow what a response. Thank you all again so much. I have enquired about DD attending open days but they say she's a bit young at the moment. Think we'll start to visit them next year when she's in Year 9.

Definitely going to do move it next year too. Might book it as part of her Chrismas pressie with some other treats incorporated in to the weekend.

[Minicooper]

Originally Posted by Vanillapod

When I was checking a few details the other day I found something that suggested the possibility of the child claiming Universal Credit (assuming they are living away from home) for courses that aren’t recognised by the Student Loan Company so that’s something I keep meaning to check into the finer details of.
I had a quick look on the Govermnent website and couldn’t see that it was covered but some people had managed to claim it.
It appeared some boroughs were granting it and some not

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It's a grey area, a lot changed when Universal Credit was introduced. The individual schools will know, I looked into Emil Dale & Bird and it couldn't be claimed at either of those.