Dance A Level

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Has anyone's dc done Dance A level in recent years and how did they find it?

Dd didn't quite get the grades to be accepted into her girls' grammar sixth form. She has been offered a place at another local school where she can do Dance A level. She didn't do GCSE Dance but is keen dancer taking multiple classes outside of school and has reached a high level.

Her other subjects would be Sociology and Psychology.

I'm just a bit wary of her doing A Levels at all because she is ASD, had some mental health problems in Years 10 and 11 and subsequent poor attendance. She's bright and capable of getting high grades but came out with 5 6s, 2 5s, 1 4 and 1 3.

Her other possible option is a local college that offers a range of BTECs (including Dance). I feel this would be much less pressure for her but at the moment she is keen on this new school and A Levels. I know all A Levels are hard and Dance would involve a fair amount of written work, no easy option I'm sure.

Any words of advice please?

My dd has just done dance GCSE and found the solo choreography parts harder than she thought and the written exam was marked really harshly this year. she was predicated 8 and got a 6 the grade curve had shifted a lot!
Her teacher wanted her to do A level dance but after working with the year 12/13s for the end of year assessments (she was in their group dances) it completely put her off! So I’d find out what’s involved in the curriculum as the heavy theory may put your DD off the enjoyment of the practical side, especially if she does it for pleasure outside school.

Thank you @SummerChilling that does sound a bit worrying. My oldest dd did a Dance BTEC which she found quite easy and got top grades. But dd3 would prefer to be at a school sixth form rather than a college.

DD is in sixth form doing A Levels in psychology and sociology plus a BTEC in dance.

She loves the dance but hates the A Levels.

Looking back I regret her taking the A Levels too. She’s getting Distinction stars in Dance but mocks for A Levels were D and E.

Even DD now agrees she wishes she’d picked something like Criminology instead of Psychology as that was coursework.

Dance BTEC has been her one happy course so I’d recommend it and the written work has been doable.

The pressure of A Levels in subjects she’d never done before is not going well.

Try and find out the A level results from the school for A level Dance this year. The college near me had poor results due to an exam regarded by the students as tricky.

@AnyOldThings nice to have a sixth form where you can combine A levels and BTECs. This particular school only offers A levels. If she wanted to do a BTEC it would mean a local college that she’s not keen on.

Wow I’m possibly naive as I didn’t realise there were sixth forms that didn’t offer all sorts of qualifications.

DD’s sixth form offer A levels, BTECs in single, double or triple, Level 3 Diplomas, and even a couple of the new T Levels.

We have a daughter with mental health problems and we are going with the theory of follow what she would be interested in.

If I was you I would be speaking to the dance teacher about how much written and if your daughter would feel comfortable with this. My daughter just finished a dance GCSE. She wanted to do dance and we encouraged her to do dance (10 years of stage school) because we thought the exercise during school day would help her. At one point was predicted an 8 but ended up scraping a 5. She got a 9 for her english GCSE so is capable with the written but tanked on the physical.

The one thing I would say is - does your daughter know what she wants to do after A level? As sociology and psychology seem quite close in nature (my daughter was deciding between the two).

In some ways it doesn't matter - I suspect your daughter's confidence and mental health is key at the moment. We are partly seeing my daughter doing A levels as chance to keep her in education and give her a few more years of maturing to do.

Also, please google PoTS - a lot of teens especially girls have mental health issues because they actually have PoTS a physically issue created by their autonomic nervous system is slow to mature and they get noradrenaline surges which suddenly increases blood flow to their heart and brain which creates a physical feeling of anxiousness.

Why not let her try the school sixth form for a year, and if it's clear by, say February, that she's struggling with the academic requirements of A-levels, then put in an application for the college. If she can't quite manage A-levels, she can restart Y12 doing a BTEC at the college, but I don't think forcing her to do a BTEC at this stage is a good idea. If she's not invested in doing the coursework, she won't get good grades on the BTEC.