DD1 (4yo) goes to a weekly dance class, and the cost per class is about £10. She goes because she enjoys dancing and it's a great outlet for her energy, although I'll put aside all maternal adoration and admit we have not produced the next Darcy Bussell! So when letters went home with some of the girls about a month ago, saying they had been invited to take part in medal tests, we weren't surprised or disappointed DD didn't have a letter. Only about a 1/3 of the class did, the teacher handled it very well, as far as I could tell there were no issues amongst the children who didn't have one.
Fast forward one month, and after DD came out of class I asked her what they'd been doing. She said they were watching the medal test group practice their routine. Now I had assumed that as there are 2 teachers, one would work with each group. So I did a little more gentle probing, and from what DD has said, it sounds like a large part of the lesson was spent with the non-medal girls just watching the main teacher work with the medal group, getting their footwork right.
I know there's probably some value to teaching the children how to be an appreciative audience and support their friends, but I also know how difficult it is to keep the attention of a group of 4 yr olds, when they're not actively participating. Am I missing some valuable trick here, about how they were actually learning via observation, or being encouraged to work harder to be selected next time? Because I'm just feeling like it's quite an expensive activity for a small child, and I'd like to think I'm paying for her to be on her feet and moving around for that time.