Music Specialist School Discussion

[Kutik73]

Sorry, this is rather long…

We’d never considered specialist school route for our musical DS, especially at such a tender age (he is Y6). However, we’ve recently started seeing it could be an option in possibly near future.

The state secondary school DS is supposed to start from September has good reputation with a wide range of extracurricular activities and music is one of their strengths. However, they also hand out heavy amount of academic work daily, and basically keep their pupils pretty busy. Keeping teens busy could be a good thing, especially for those who may get in trouble or glue themselves to screen otherwise. But DS loves music and he likes to immerse himself in music more, but in reality, he’ll have less time for such freedom once he starts secondary school. The additional journey time is another thing. It takes 45 mins to get there, whereas it’s only 5-10 mins currently.

A friend suggested we could see specialist school as a small private school with strong music activities rather than a place where all DCs were aiming to be professional musicians.

Her logic is, the class size is a lot smaller than the state secondary school so pupils get more attention hence learn more efficiently, all the while there is no compromise in music studies. DCs who are keen to keep up academic work on top will manage to get good enough GCSE results for decent sixth form if they decide to pursue other than music for A level/uni. Although sixth form seems the most popular (and sensible) time to join specialist school, KS3 is actually the best time because if DCs change their mind on course, it’s easier for them to return to ‘normal education’ possibly at sixth form with good enough academic record and musical ability strong enough to be a music scholarship material. But if they stay focused on music and in fact decide to take it seriously, starting early will only become beneficial. Though, it depends on circumstance of course, and instrument. DS plays violin/piano for instance - hence early start can be rather important.

However, I heard and read some scary stories about music specialist school while I was researching. Some claimed they felt like they were living in a prison, some expressed unhappiness (even though they recognised the benefit and appreciated their fortunate position), some teachers talked about very able young musicians going to specialist school as a huge mistake, etc…

DS innocently expresses strong desire to go to music specialist school. I, as a parent, wish him happiness more than anything. By accepting his desire and letting him go where he says he likes to go, am I pushing him into a harsh and scarily competitive world unnecessarily? Or, like my friend suggested, it could be a lot more flexible than I may have been thinking and in fact could be good alternative KS3 education for musical and academic DCs?

Any thoughts/knowledge/experience would be greatly appreciated…

Yes MDS in our experience is very straightforward but I remember the stress first time around! It was all explained but somehow didn't quite believe it! Basically just fill in the form and wait a month or so with award letter coming early in summer holiday. Unless you have a very unusual situation or don't provide full information and proof the rough guideline numbers will be about right. Certainly no visits required! Maybe the odd extra piece of paper required as proof. Also at our school I don't even think it is the MDS that makes the assessment but the school (although audited later by MDS) It really seems the scheme is set up to make it as easy possible for anybody to be able to attend regardless of means.

How stupid I am! I was wondering when they were sending me the bursary form, so dropped an email a few days ago just to give them a gentle nag. Then I received an email from them nagging back at me about the completed form. I looked into my emails then noticed the form was sent to me nearly two weeks ago.... How could it happen!!!?? Another panic...

It will be fine
we haven't had our MDS forms yet for AYM . They also have their own form which goes into more detail ( including how much dd's extra curricular activities are etc) they use this info to award money from all their other bursaries. It's a really good system as they have contacts that I would never have so this year Ds got money from the Leverhulme trust which was a really nice surprise ( and a massive help) as well as from an endowment made to Snape

No checks at home though - justvlits if print outs of bank statements bills etc . Last year we were in the middle of moving so I just had to say what we thought our new bills etc would be and that was fine !!

They asked me to return the form asap but the absolute latest would be this coming Friday. I need DH to check the details and also need his signature but he's away till Tuesday. I might drive to the school to hand it in rather than posting!!

I feel like things never become certain until the very last minute!! I can't wait to be able to confirm DS is definitely going to the school 100%!

Sure it will be fine Kutik. Just make sure you have proof especially tax returns/wage slips etc.

The MDS is the bit that's causing me the most stress and I can't wait to get some confirmation that all is OK.

Folk We were hoping to get help with Conservatoire fees this year but we didn't qualify. As others have maybe mentioned, it's a pure income test rather than a true means test. Our income was too high so we got nada. The MDS for Specialist Schools is also an income test but is more generous in the help it offers - I hope!

The MDS forms sound similar to filling in student finance forms for uni!

I messed up this year on the student finance form as apparently I have put income down as xx million, I imagine I'd put in pence where shouldn't have. Its confused things a bit!!!

Still waiting for feedback. Imagine it can't be long as its nearly the end of term!

Oh no littleladsdad, I really hoped we were in with a shout 😔

The same here, littleladsdad. We didn't qualify for jd fees.

raspberry

🤯

folk, sorry I didn't mean to make you worried. We didn't apply from the beginning as we knew we wouldn't qualify. So your case may be different from ours.

Didn't want to cause consternation either folk. These awards are made depending on individual circumstances but as far as I could see a family would need to be on a fairly low single income to qualify for help.

I seem to have done things differently to everyone else - I didn't (couldn't) accept JD place until they had confirmed financial assistance. They were brilliant though and really quickly agreed a level of fees that meant we could manage, then they went off to work out the funding from various sources. Massively grateful to them as this meant we could accept the place for DD.

I am hoping it's not the case for music specialist school. It seems almost everyone can get some financial aid from what I hear and also the information on the website seems promising....

But we won't know until we get the final confirmation. In fact we have to submit the form....

Hmmm.. I guess time will tell! I did tick the box that said 'is acceptance dependent on receiving a bursary"... we are also planning a ticketed concert at Christmas time (with BFF) to try and plug some of the gap and I have taken the 'shot gun' approach and applied to pretty much every charitable trust I could find for a grant. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

I did a little searching on the subject of sources of finance for young musicians - there's an excellent list of these at the end of the Royal Welsh College of MD bursary application form.

www.rwcmd.ac.uk/pdf/Bursary_Application_Form_2018-19.pdf

Thanks, there are a couple on there we haven't tried! (And I even have that bursary form as she was offered a place there 🙈)

I won't get a copy of P60 until DH comes back from his holiday (tomorrow!) so in the meantime I emailed the school the draft of the form so that they could tell me any amendment or additional information would be needed before posting the original form. They quickly came back and told me all seemed fine and now all they need would be the original form and a copy of P60, which was a big relief. But then they also kindly told me the estimated contribution and it was a way more than we were hoping to be.... We also received an email from jd that they would need to charge us a term's fees as we didn't give them early enough notice. Well, they require a term's notice so it was anyway too late for us to escape the charge as everything happened in June.... Double punches... Ouch...

I assume we have nowhere to approach to obtain any more financial aid as all others are not as generous as MDS....

Not sure if we still send DS to the school. Need to think very carefully.

Actually DS is attending the state secondary today. They invited all the children who are starting the school this September for various tests (SEN, CATS, etc). At first DS didn't wanna go as some important events are on at his primary school today but I told him he should attend the tests in case he may go to the school after all. I've kept his expectation as realistic as possible and also very open about our financial situation so hopefully he wouldn't be too disappointed if we decide against sending him to the music school....

Sorry to hear about the financial issues Kutik. Out of interest any idea why different to your expectation? It all seems very transparent from our experience. YMS also quite clear on website and we were given similar figures on paper on audition day.

www.menuhinschool.co.uk/school/admissions/fees-bursaries

www.purcell-school.org/fees.html

PS if you really can't afford the contribution then maybe the school can help from other sources if you tell them. I know the music schools have extensive scholarship funds outside MDS which are used a lot for non-EU citizens ineligible for MDS but maybe could provide extra help for you.