November 2009
Exams
You will all be aware that the IDTA exam dates have been set.
These are Tuesday 15th December (Alwoodley Methodist Church Hall) and Sunday 20th December (East Ardsley Community Centre).
There will never be an ideal way to book exams as there are so many factors involved, and we are always dependant on whether we can get a hall and an examiner. Trust me I would rather have had a date earlier in December, but this was all that was available to us in this region. Candidates can take their exam at either Centre, so that may help you if you have a particular difficulty on one day.
A letter for school is now available to download from the website here if you need one.
Similarly, I have now received notification of the times the examiners are available. Exams on both days start at 10.00am. This is set by the IDTA. However, we have some flexibility during the day, so if you have any particular time requirements let us know. All requests will be dealt with on a first come first served basis and can only be adhered to if everyone in your exam group can make the time. Please can all requests come in to us before Saturday of this week (6th December). Any requests received after this date may not be possible.
Adult
Classes – Changes
We have decided to change the way in which we bill adult classes. From now on, all adult classes will be run on the following premise :-
Either £5 drop in per lesson or £40 per ten weeks
We hope that this will fit in with your lives a little better and make the classes better value for you. This does not apply to any child even if they join an adult class ie, keep fit.
Capped Fee
Don’t forget, we do offer a heavily subsidised capped fee system. This means for £150 per ten week block you/your child can do as many classes as you/they like at any of our four Centres, in any subject. We think this represents exceptional value for money, so if you wish to take advantage of it, get in touch. We also think this would benefit those of you who need extra coaching for ballet and tap exams – especially as the same lessons operate at each Centre. This would make your exam bills much cheaper…………the only outlay would be a bit of inconvenient travel.
Stage Stars
We are appearing in Northen Ballet Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol at Leeds Grand Theatre. See here for details.
Thank you all for your generous donations at the recent ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. We raised £50.29 at the centres which we rounded up to £60. Earlier in the year we raised £100.70 for Comic Relief. Thank you again to everyone.
New Teaching Qualifications
Jenny has recently achieved the NCSSE (The National Council for Spirit Safety and Education)
Level
1 - Cheer Dance and Coaching Principles and Ethics
Level 2 - Program Management and Cheer Fundamentals
Many congratulations on this fantastic achievement.
Branded
Goods
Sorry for the teething problems. The goods that we got to you were very well received, and it is lovely to see them worn so proudly in school, and everywhere else…….. We did however realise that the order form was incorrect and this has now been redone and is available to download from the website.
We will be putting in one more order before Christmas, so if you want any branded goods for Christmas presents please get them to us before 6th December. You should then get them in time for Santa.
We have discovered that we cannot have a zipped hoody for the Street uniform – something to do with multicoloured printing……We can however have a pull on one, so if you ordered a zipped one, could you confirm you are ok with a pull on one.
We
are committed to getting this right, but it will take time, so thank you for
your patience.
Please
note that if an item is ordered with a name on the back, it must be
paid for in advance as these cannot obviously be returned.
Competitions/Festivals
The Sherburn Festival - congratulations to Caitlin Rose (Ballet) and Heather Irving (National) who both received Bronze Medals.
Competitions on 28th November in BatleyBusiness & EnterpriseCollege. Congratulations to Johanna Bullamore-Brown and Samantha Taylor who made their competition debut here. They came back with a very commendable bronze for Samantha and 4th place for Johanna. Well done girls.
We have received the entry forms for the next set – due to take place at the end of January, so please come and see me if you want to participate in these.
Fees
Bills are being sent out. Phil apologises for putting the wrong date on some bills. The dates should read 23rd November to 13th February not 13th January. Sorry for any confusion.
All bills must be paid by Saturday 5th December, either with postdated cheques as per the payment arrangement forms or in full. Any problems please get in touch immediately.
Changes
to timetable and fees attributed to it
Just to clarify our policy on this. We run classes throughout the week in every genre, most of which are duplicated. Therefore we do NOT offer any refunds for classes missed due to rehearsals, exams or any other individual circumstance. We may on occasion offer refunds if we cannot use the hall due to circumstances beyond our control – however these will NOT be offered if an alternative time has been scheduled which you could then not make. We are sorry to sound so stern, but we do our best to ensure as many opportunities come your way with as little disruption as possible. Please be aware that although your child may not be in class due to their own success, the class will go on regardless and therefore a hall and teacher have to be paid for, hence no deductions. I hope this makes sense of it all. N.B. if you pay the capped fee there will be no discounts are all as your classes are already heavily subsidised.
Christmas
Party/Award Ceremony
As the IDTA exams are due to take place in the final week of term we think it will be too stressful to miss a lesson for the sake of a party. So, we have postponed them. They will take place when we come back in the Winter term – watch this space. The last day of term can be used as a dress up day/watch week where appropriate instead.
10
year Celebrations
To clarify, all celebrations will include both the DCSD and Street Level sides of the School, and will be relevant to you whether you were here 10 years ago or not. We want everyone to be involved!
Committee
We have started………the first regional committee has been formed. A committee meeting was held at East Ardsley on Thursday 19th November, following consultation in the Saturday and Wednesday classes. The new committee members are Tina Rose (Chair), Kate Ford (Treasurer), Lesley Cowling (Secretary) and Amanda Bailey (Artistic everything). We are looking to follow this at Alwoodley, Morley and Drighlington, so please get in touch.
It was decided initially that the main roles of the Committee would be as follows :-
(a) to assist in collecting fees at bill times
(b) to assist in the preparation and fundraising for shows and performances
(c) to raise funds to purchase equipment for use in the School
(d) to help with exams and shows
(e) to arrange theatre and other relevant trips
(f) to organise parties
Thank you for the time given by the new committee members, none of whom receive any financial compensation in any way from the School.
We would love to see as many of you as possible to get involved so please either approach me or a committee member and get along to the next meeting – details of which will be posted soon.
The EACC committee are busy organising a trip to see Hairspray at Leeds Grand Theatre, so watch this space for more information.
Halloween
The Halloween Party was a great success, thanks to everyone who provided food and games.
Saturdays at East Ardsley
28th
November & 5th December
Thank you to everyone for their cooperation regarding the changes in timetable for the dates referred to. If anyone is confused by which time to turn up, please get in touch.
Christmas Holidays
19th December 2009* to 4th January 2010 – The School Year can be found here
(*unless in exam session 20th December)
Deborah, Jenny, Sophie & Jemma