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Extra-curricular activities

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Original poster

Both children love performing but cost of all the classes is out of our price range!! Help

30 replies

aladdinisalive · 28/08/2020 22:05

I have 2 kids who both attend MT classes at an independent stage school. They are 13 and 14 now so have moved up to the Elite class for the two of them for musical theatre it costs us £650 a term and now they want us to add advanced dance, singing and acting on plus modern and ballet. Another thing I have noticed with this school is the big parts in the main shows only ever go to the children who attend all the classes as these children show commitment to the industry and obviously doing further dancing, signing and acting classes they are going to be all round better performers. The principal has said that without these extra 5 classes if my kids want to study dance/drama at 18 plus at drama school they will not be considered for auditions. Our problem is we really can't afford it for everything that they say they need it will be £1,530 a term. There is no way we can do this. I am looking at a second job to fund this but then I also can't work too much as somebody needs to be about to ferry them to classes. Also they are going into yr 9 and 10 so very important years at school but I feel guilty for jeopardising their chances of entry to drama school by not letting them do this broad range of classes. Their drama school is brilliant but mainly very wealthy families who have the money to fund the classes. I keep being told that the 13 yr old could possibly get a scholarship to one of the London stage schools but never take it further as my youngest probably isn't scholarship material and I would feel guilty for choosing one over the other. It would be much easier if they had different interests but no they both want to be west end/ Broadway performers!!!! They are both very committed and very competitive with each other but without a bottomless pit of money will they ever succeed!!! I feel like I am letting them down.

OP posts:
nonicknameseemsavailable · 28/08/2020 23:27

that sounds an enormous number of classes.

I think I would really say sit down with your children and see what they ENJOY the most. Then look at whether that place provides good quality training in each of those things. It is quite unusual to find a good drama school that also does good dancing for example. You say it is a Stage School but we have a few of them near us and they like "all in one" classes which really end up as not being amazing in the individual disciplines. If you did a dance class at a dance school, a drama class at a drama school (or even a drama club at school could be very good quality depending on the teacher and the structure) and a singing lesson or group could end up cheaper, fewer hours and yet higher standard. Quality over quantity

Lonecatwithkitten · 28/08/2020 23:09

I should add she now has a job at a theatre school who for 10-15 charge £330 per term for what you are getting including advanced singing and acting.
She is the class assistant for the 5-8 year old group.

Lonecatwithkitten · 28/08/2020 23:05

My DD has a place at MT professional training starting next week (sixth form) until this point she belong to a volunteer run community children's MT group £90 per term, singing classes an hour a week £320 per term (individual), acting 45mins per week ( two in class) £250 per term and a ballet class an hour per week £80 per term.
Total spend £740 per term. The key things that helped get the place were community MT and ballet. Next I would say was singing and acting classes last.

Aquicknamechange2019 · 28/08/2020 22:18

Can you speak to a different stage school?

Oliversmumsarmy · 28/08/2020 22:10

Where abouts are you?

£650 sounds incredibly expensive.

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