School support with extra-curricular interests / talents

[folkmamma]

Hoping for some examples of adaptions / compromises your DC's secondary schools have made to support them with their vocations/talents - eg elite sports training, music, theatre work etc.

My DD is a musician and actress. She has a busy panto season ahead as well as keeping up with her training at JD in London. Trying to negotiate some concessions on homework and additional time for practice within the school day. Would be really helpful to have some examples of precedent!!

TIA :-)

I have no experience of this, but I think yr8 is just too young to think academic stuff is something you can compensate.
I just think it's up to you, if you think it's ok for her to forget about academic success at this young age, go for it. She is barely a teenager. Your decisions still determines her life.

I am suggesting she gets a rostered 'free' in lieu of the music lessons she DOESN'T have in school to catch up with homework and class work she will miss due to matinee shows and make up some practice time. For half a term.
We know what you are asking!

We are telling you it's an unreasonable expectation.

You CHOOSING to have private music tuition out of school isn't doing the school a favour, it's not that choosing to have private music lessons means you can bank the time up to take as frees for homework.

Otherwise, why not decide any child who does gymnastics or football or dance or any other club out of school should get additional frees as they shouldn't have to do PE because that time is in lieu of all the out if school activities they do.

I'm sorry OP, but you really seem to have a warped view of what is reason and not reasonable.

Agree with above. At my child's school every child has to do at least one extracurricular club at the school. If they take part in a sports club, music lessons etc, outside of school they can get a pass not to do one within school. It does not allow them to skip normal PE lessons. Tne curriculum.at this age is compulsory. When she takes her options she will still have to take PE as they are still compulsory plus she will still have a full timetable for tne optons she can choose. School are already being very accommodating,

I know of schools that:

• allow children to leave early three times a week for vocational dance
• allow the same children to not do contact PE sports
• schools that allow children to do less GCSEs... not to do poorly on them or do less than they’d need as “back up” but just less than the absurd 10-12 many schools have started doing. Can I remind you children need 5????!

And as for all your responses saying “you clearly have no clue what you’re doing, your feet are in fairy land”... firstly the lack of faith any of you show in the determination of talented young people is astonishing. And indicative of why many give up on careers they would love, going on to live lives with regrets for what they could have done. The OP clearly stated that her kid isn’t only willing to accept the top west end parts, she is willing to do all the different jobs an actor-musician can to get by without a big break.

My DDs ballet teacher told her that when she was 9 years old she told her mum exactly what she wanted of her dance career. Many people around her told her she would fail, that she couldn’t know what she wanted and the odds were slim.... thank goodness she ignored them. All the people like you judgy lot.

I love how ready people are to twist words, jump in on hassling someone else when your criticism wasn’t asked for.

When I was a child the phrase was “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. It really should be a core rule of mumsnet. If you don’t have the advice being asked for, stop “pissing on someone else’s chips” (though to the darling who posted that, t may be my new favourite phrase).

Squintsoftheworldunite
And I've given a list of examples of what my school does to support students working at a high level. The fact I think the OP's expectations are unrealistic and her attitude is wrong has absolutely NOTHING to do with having low expectations or pissing on chips.

The fact of the matter is that the OP seems to think that school should be giving her child additional frees because her daughter does music lessons out of school. So what? There must be at least a dozen students in my school alone who do music to a similar level, but they don't expect school to give them free time for it.

There's another dozen or so that do sport to a high level, including national and international teams. They aren't expecting staff to plan their lessons and learning sequences around when is convenient for them to do the homework.

Maybe every child who does shows or sports teams or private music lessons should also get these banked free lessons in year 8 too because it's wrong to expect them to do their homework on time when they other more important things to do that are their passion.

When I was in secondary school and on stage, the school would allow me to come in after registration with tutor / assembly so essentially miss the first 30 mins of the school day and I was able to have a week extension on all homework as I would come home from school. Eat dinner and have to be in the theatre for 5 and not be home until 10+

My school were really supportive and I was very grateful for it.

Snowflake9
We've given authorised leave for a week for some GCSE students as long as there's been relevant discussions about educational responsibility etc for young performers and we are happy they're able to manage.

There's lots schools can do that's specific to certain situations and depending on what other agencies and education providers are involved.

I'm not convinced that taking the line my child should get free time in the day to compensate for the fact we choose to do music lessons out of school instead of in school really cuts it.
Equally, suggesting that a child doesn't need supervising is nonsense and so's the idea that a member of staff should supervise 1-1 for a period of time instead of actually being free to do their job.

how many panto shows is she doing in total? ours do between 18 and 26 depending on the year and team arrangements. only in primary here but we get authorised absence for a few rehearsals that are during the school day and for school time performances, this generally seems to total about 4.5-6 school days spread over November and December. Never had late starts after a late show even in year 3, been required to return to school for 1hr here and there if they can between things etc. no extensions with any tasks (although I do realise that homework is less).

Will we still do panto in secondary school if possible? probably not. if we did then I would at most perhaps be asking for a tiny bit of leniency if there was a short turnaround homework (say set tuesday for wednesday but in tuesday matinee and evening show) but otherwise by that age I think it is necessary for them to find a way to fit it in.

Panto is a lovely experience for them I agree but I am not sure it counts for much on a CV and if my children were doing lots of other stuff as well then I probably wouldn't let them do it as well, not if they had already done it in the past and had the experience already if that makes sense. Of course there is also the catching up on work missed to do shows. It is a huge commitment isn't it.

children we know who compete internationally in sports or who are top in the country in various activities (music, dancing, sport) seem to get authorised absences for training camps and competitions or performances/exams during school time and I know some of the sports ones can submit work online from distance learning where required etc with some getting brief extensions but not normally much as unfortunately it tends to then lead to being behind which then leads to being more behind etc.

I've thought long and hard about whether to return here after the virtual bashing I got last week. However, I decided to share the very positive developments and eventual outcome that have taken place this week for the benefit of others who may find themselves here looking for advice in similar circumstances. It's a long read!

I have undertaken lots of research this week! I've spoken to several local schools about our circumstances and how we are looking for a school that are prepared to work in collaboration with us to balance our daughter's whole education, which includes her vocational training in music and drama, both of which she is active in at a national/professional level.

Without exception, they were interested and accommodating, giving examples of ways in which they already provide the sort of flexibility we are looking for to gifted and talented kids in their schools. These adaptions included many of the things already covered in this thread - of note, one school allowed a pupil to leave at lunchtime every Friday to travel into London!

We are also now supported by the organisation PotentialPlus who gave invaluable advice on what is 'normal' in our circumstances. The answer is nothing - kids like DD very definitely need something other than 'normal' in terms of education and we are not unreasonable to want or expect that for her. They talked us through how to approach the meeting with school and also offered to work with school on our behalf (which in the end was not necessary but was a 'nice to have' going into the meeting).

Our meeting with the Deputy Head happened today. I had thoroughly prepared - had pulled together all of DD's reports (school, theatre school, JD), exam results, festival adjudications, references, letters and written work showing her personal aspirations and dedication, and most importantly, a very detailed schedule of the next 3 months showing exactly where the 'pinch points' are where I can see she is going to struggle.

The conversation was positive and collaborative right from the outset. School recognise that music and drama need equal weighting in her life. The Dep. Head already had some ideas on what they could do to help find the right balance and we have actually come away with far more than I had intended to ask for at this point in her school life. For anyone interested in specifics, I am happy to share in a PM.

Happy to say my initial frustrations at their first response were misplaced. A very good outcome for us and a new found confidence in the fact that she is in the right place.

That's a great outcome, well done.

Great outcome, so glad the school were able to see the big picture.and think about the whole child and not just exam results.