The school of ballet theatre uk

[AnnoyingKitten]

Does anyone know anything about or anybody who goes to this school? My DD is thinking of applying but I'm not sure where to look for information on it apart from their website. Thanks

[Eeeeeek330]

If you are not on there already try the doing dance section of the balletco website. I am pretty sure there are a few threads about the school and some of the regular posters have children who go there.
www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/forum/9-doing-dance/

A friend of a friend's daughter goes. The last I heard was she was getting plenty of performing opportunities with the touring ballet theatre company, but this was because they had laid off some of their paid dancers and used students instead. This is gossip I hasten to add.

[AnnoyingKitten]

Thank you. I tried to ask about the school on that forum and apparently there is a ban on discussing it 😕

[AnnoyingKitten]

A few people have PM'd me and it doesn't sound too good. The fact that you aren't allowed to discuss the school is a bit worrying.

[zizza]

I'll have to be careful what I say, but what you've read here should make you do very careful research if you're looking at this as a possible school. balletcoforum is an excellent place to look for information on other schools though - and there are lots! Good luck (mum of ex-professional ballet dancing son here)

[ChocolateF1reguard]

Zizza may I ask why you need to be careful what you say ?

[AlexanderHamilton]

Hi - I've had personal conversations with a couple of ex BTUK parents. I have known some of these people for several years.

The ban on discussion is due to the threat of legal action. It's balletco forums very own she who must not be named.

Things to investigate for parents considering the school:

The contract & bursaries offered. What are the conditions if your child decided to withdraw from the school for any reason eg injury or deciding it's not for them. Do you have to give a full terms notice to leave (standard in the independent secto) or are you bound to paying fees fircthecremsinder of the course/pay back the value of any bursaries offered.

Qualifications offered at the end of the course Is it a level 6 degree, HND or is the only validated qualification a HNC (usually completed in one year not three)

Who is actually in charge of running the school. The experienced artistic director of the BTUK company or someone else entirely. What experience does he have with training young people & injury prevention etc

What safeguards are in place and who vets accommodation.

Is the school fully CDET accredited as a full time school or just for its part time associate classes.

[ChocolateF1reguard]

I am aware that they have threatened people with legal action but I cannot imagine a magistrate in civil or criminal court be sympathetic to these 3 business people, who have been proven to mislead students and parents about what they offer. The principle has no qualifications in teaching and yet charges £30 plus for a master class. What is he a master in I ask?

[MultiMumma]

I have had some dealings with this 'school', which isn't officially recognised as a school, as far as I know (ask the local authority!!). I know that the students are obliged to live in accommodation provided by the 'school' which is very expensive and that there is no pastoral care as such. In one case, the 17 year old housemates of one student had to drive her to And E in the middle of the night because there was no adult available to help. I also know that most of the teachers dont seem to have formal qualifications. Maybe as a result of this lack of training,a few students have been told to continue to dance with injuries. I have heard of bullying from staff members, not only of other staff members but also of the students. It is not somewhere I would wish my child to attend.

[ChocolateF1reguard]

Thank you multimumma but unfortunately there are parents of children who still attend BTUK who feel isolated, there are some parents that feel the need to pretend to the rest of the country (and their social circle) that everything at BTUK is great. It is important to recognise most parents have invested years of paying for ballet training to make their children's dreams come true, plus the emotional and financial cost will have been huge to get their child in to a vocational ballet school. But this is not a vocational ballet school it is a private ballet company and I don't understand why some moderators are protecting them at the cost of the welfare of the students

[AlexanderHamilton]

Chocolate - no moderators are protecting them. But balletcoforum is a small privately run website without the money for lawyers & extensive legal advice.

Mumsnet which is a much larger organisation has had to have similar bans on discussion in the past in order to protect the website owners from being personally liable for court cases.

[AlexanderHamilton]

It might be interesting to note that I contacted the education authorities with regards to a completely different London based school.

There are no legal etc requirements for any institution to be registered as a school or college as long as they do not offer full time education to children under 16.

I personally have very recently been threatened by the principal of an unaccredited private musical theatre college because I questioned certain things & gave my opinion. Now I was careful to only give personal views on my feelings on that type of institution & ask questions so could not be said to have been defamatory but it wasn't very pleasant.

[MultiMumma]

Sounds most unpleasant. I hadn't realised that about schools...thanks for that. Still wouldn't want mine to go there though..

[taxi4ballet]

Could I possibly please ask folks to consider that the ballet world is an extremely small one, and that certain young people could be identifiable by the remarks on here.

[ChocolateF1reguard]

Thank you AH I guess i feel the children have been let down, there is a moral obligation to protect the children and that should have outweighed the threats being made

[dodobookends]

Chocolate there was more than one reason why the threads were locked I believe, and the decision would not have been taken lightly.

[AnnoyingKitten]

Thank you all for your replies. I have had several private messages from the other forum too and have most definitely decided not to consider this school.

[ChocolateF1reguard]

Dodobookends yes I have no doubt there were people who would like to help the students but felt they couldn't. All the students know that staff broke the forums rules by impersonating a student to promote the school on line and it's right the school is barred etc but I would like mums to come together to help prevent anybody else's child suffering and I'm not sure how to do that.

[shimmyshimmycocopop]

I know people who tried to speak up about this 'school' and the way it was run 2 years ago. Sadly they were shut down by the school AND the parents. They tried to warn the parents not to trust these people but apparently they are very convincing!! The fact that you aren't allowed to discuss it on a dance forum is all I would need to know.

[ChocolateF1reguard]

Unfortunately the forum hasn't made a statement to explain their position and they delete any posts, unless they are positive posts. So parents doing research won't know that the balletcoforum is protecting BTUK.

[zizza]

Not true - here's what it says in a pinned post:

"To all forum members: In accordance with our legal obligations, threads and posts relating to the School of Ballet Theatre UK are hidden and, for the time being, any new postings relating to that school will be hidden. We will advise members as and when this situation changes. In the meantime, please do not post anything relating to this school. Thank you."

[zizza]

No posts allowed - positive or negative

[ChocolateF1reguard]

I've spoken to some of the parents and the notice you refer to was issued in August 2016, some 6 months after parents started voicing their concerns on the balletcoforum.
I feel that the volunteers at the forum are being bullied.