are children now generally older when they take ballet exams than in the '80s?

[nonicknameseemsavailable]

I know from some posts on here that some still take dance exams at 5 or just turned 6 but most of the children I know are 6 or 7 when they take pre-primary ballet and 7 or 8 for primary. This is across a mix of dancing schools but I know I gave up ballet when I turned 7 (I wanted to go to brownies and they were the same night) and I took Primary and Grade 1 before I left so I am just surprised so many are older now. Is it mostly to do with schools wanting them to get distinctions now?

Well, I know that my Dd took her primary aged 5. I have just looked at her certificates, she took RAD primary on 12/03/2008, she was born on 8/01/2003, that makes her 5 years old. And she passed with a merit and 71 marks.

She is taking her Inter- foundation in November, aged 11 and 11 months. She has been taking Inter-foundation classes since November 2011, and currently also attend Intermediate classes. She does three Inter foundation classes of 1 and a quarter hours a week and two Intermediate classes of the same length. She also attends 1 grade 6 class a week of forty-five minutes.

Her friend, who is now at White Lodge, took her Inter foundation with special allowances last July (she was 11 in the June, so therefore should not have been able to take it until the autumn term by rights).

Rightly or wrongly the RAD have, in the recent past, made exceptions. As I have said previously, I wouldn't necessarily advise taking exams early as the examiners tend to then Mark them harder. I am aware that an IDTA examiner last year told our dance teacher that some of the children had not achieved distinctions because she felt they were too young to be takin whichever grades they were entered for.

As you wish. I really don't want to get drawn in any more to this sort of thing. RAD obviously make special allowances for people off the internet

And I don't know anybody who would put their child's date of birth on a busy chat forum for all to see.

The regulations for age at exam date were changed by the RAD a couple of years ago. Previously it used to be as long as you reached the required age by the end of the period in which you took the exam. So - yes, technically it used to be possible to do Primary at 5.

Now they take age as at 1st January so to take an exam you would have to reach the required age by 31st December of the previous year. They found, however, that there wasn't enough leeway, as it didn't fall withing the normal school year groups (and particularly for the more advanced vocational grades) so the RAD recently introduced another date (1st September). This means that someone with a spring/summer birthday can now take the exam in the autumn term following their birthday.

There is another reason why you can sometimes take the exam under-age, it is all to do with the dates of the examination 'tour' and an overlap with the minimum age requirement. Details are on their website with a full explanation.

Hope this helps clear things up!

She is one of many children with that date of birth. I am not worried about it being on a forum... it's out there on plenty of other documents.

I was questioning my own memory which is why I got her certificates out to check. I know the current rules, at the time she took it I was a relatively new dance mom and I can't honestly say how she was allowed to take it, I just sent the money in when requested by the teacher and she took the exam with several of her friends, who, admittedly, were older than her.

I do know that RAD do change their age requirements slightly occasionally though.

Thank you taxi, that sounds vaguely familiar.

What taxi said.

"I do know that RAD do change their age requirements slightly occasionally though."

They don't occasionally change them at all.

Sorry, I've come across this poster before, and I believe I am now in danger of breaking troll hunting guidelines so I shall do as I said and not get drawn in.

I meant the rules change slightly, as taxi confirmed above.

What taxi said is factually correct (& I know her from another forum)

The poster I was referring to was not taxi.

I know, but she was confirming the facts.

silverymary I can honestly say that I am not a troll and my dd took her primary when she was 5. If you truly do not believe me I can send you a photograph of her birth certificate and her primary exam certificate.

The op asked what age children take exams, I gave the ages my dd has taken hers.

My dd took her RAD preprimary at 6 (end of year 1) and will (hopefully) be taking her Grade 2 next June when she will be 8 (end of Yr 3)

The RAD website goes into the whole age thing in extreme (and boring!!) detail. Somewhere along the line I also seem to remember reading something about the reasons for their decision to change, but I can't remember where offhand.

These are 'minimum' ages though, and as others have said, other factors will affect when someone will take the exam, including the size of the class and the school, whether the school does exams one year and a show the next etc etc.

"that makes her 5 years old. And she passed with a merit and 71 marks. "

I'm genuinely a little shocked by this - it does seem to be acceleration for acceleration's sake if your DD carried on taking exams at very 'young' ages but carried on getting non-top marks.

In DD's dance school, it's unknown to get a pass, and relatively rare to get a merit (probably a ratio of 5 distinctions to 1 merit at a minimum, in some exam sessions no merits whatever). As I said above, DD has taken ballet exams at around the ISTD minimum ages - 5 for Primary class Test, 6 for Primary and then on up in ballet - but like pretty much all her friends she has never got anything other than a distinction. The principal simply doesn't enter anyone who she doesn't think is capable of getting that grade, and would certainly not age-accelerate a child who wasn't very certain of getting one.

But surely waiting for a child to be ready to get a distinction is just bad. What on earth is the point of that?! Dance classes are to teach a child to dance, not to pass exams. There should be lots of free work too.

ISTD, RAD and the other examining bodies all have their own grading systems and age requirements, and teachers will also have their own personal opinions about age grouping in their classes and exams.

A big school will have several exam sessions a year, a smaller one might have one every 18 months - two years. Some teachers might allow talented youngsters to skip an exam and move up to the next grade if no-one else is ready to take it, another teacher will insist on regular steady progression.

I will say though (IMHO) that if your dc has been in the same grade for two years or more and is making little progress (probably because they're bored stiff) it might be worth having a 'trial' lesson at another dance school and see if they enjoy the class better there. If, however they're still really enjoying it then it doesn't really matter what the piece of paper says!

As with all things to do with children there is occasionally an element of competitiveness among some parents: the "Oh my DS/DD did that exam ages ago, is yours STILL in that grade?!!!!" syndrome...

Why worry? Almost all of them are doing dance as an enjoyable hobby. If they are having a good time (which you don't mind paying for), it really doesn't matter what grade they are.

Panda, the ISTD syllabus has free work from Grade 1, so it forms a really large part of the class work every lesson. Definitely not a case of 'just drilling in exam work'. Almost all children progress at an exam per year / 4 terms, so it isn't that children are delayed for ages - and there are some who progress with Merits. I was just surprised that a child would be 'age accelerated' to take grades but then didn't do particularly well - its like those poor kids who do GCSE Maths at 8 and get a C.... why bother???

On another point raised upthread, it is interesting that DD's grade 6 MT class is actively being 'delayed' - the content of the grade 6 exam is quite mature in style, so the dance teacher is doing lots and lots and lots of 'widthways' extension (jazz dance, improvisation, free work, choreography etc) until the class (most of whom are 11 /12 at the moment) are ready to approach the Grade 6 work with appropriate style and maturity.

"I was just surprised that a child would be 'age accelerated' to take grades but then didn't do particularly well - its like those poor kids who do GCSE Maths at 8 and get a C.... why bother???"

I agree. If they're age accelerated here it's usually because they're going to very obviously and easily achieve a distinction.

Will RAD no longer make allowances if a child falls a couple of weeks short of the minimum age requirements?

The new RAD syllabus is much more mature in style & content & technical accuracy us also important.

Saying that I think it was a big mistake to allow my child to stay in Grade 3 fir 2 years (she left before she actually took the exam but get classmates would have been in the Grade for 2.5 years.

It put her behind in terms if things taught. She felt she wasn't getting corrections any longer fir example so wasn't being stretched.

But it was just circumstances & she remains loyal to that school.