New secondary school for boys proposed in East London - using Dance every day.

[Stirrups36]

Hi all,

after being an honorary member of a Ballet Mums site (please be gentle with me) I am venturing on here to let you know about a school I am proposing for East London.

CLASS will be a small (150 pupils in total) 11-16 school for boys that will use 90 mins of dance every day. It will also use technology in some innovative ways and will hopefully open in Sept 2014.

The Royal Ballet School is developing the dance curriculum, and there are exciting things planned to offer an innovative approach to boys education. You can find out more at www.class-dance.co.uk and if you wish your son to attend, can sign up as well (for those currently in years 4 to 8).

If all goes well, we intend having more such schools set up across the country. the more that show an interest, the better.
thanks for reading.

Tim

Really interesting. Is the intention that the boys should already be dancers, or to open the benefits theory to a wider audience? Entrance criteria?

We aren't London based, but if we were I would be seriously considering the possibility, if academic excellence were to be equally prioritized and catered for.

Ds1 loves to dance, but the pressure of doing so as an extra-curricular means he is less keen to make that choice in the face of spirited and gendered opposition.

the intention is that if they want to dance, and are prepared to do 90 mins every day - not full ballet, but in year 7 split between 'ballet preparation' and 'creative dance', then they can apply.

This would not be an alternative to having other classes, nor is it an alternative to vocational schools. For example, if your son was in an associate programme for ballet, or had regular lessons elsewhere after school/weekends, then they would be expected to carry those classes on.

It would use the fact that dance helps learning to bring on the academic learning as well.

then at graduation (16 years old), boys may wish to carry on dance studies, or may want to do Maths, Physics, Chemistry A levels. the school would try to make sure that they have the education they need to do whatever they want.

Can you tell me where it is likely to be based in East London?