Exams

Exams are the thing parents ask about most and the thing we are most relaxed about. They are optional, they are entered only when the teacher is sure, and the mark sheet that comes back is the most useful piece of paper a dancer gets all year. The dates for the next two sessions are below, with what each session needs from you.

The school is an RAD-registered examination centre for classical ballet and an ISTD-approved centre for tap and modern theatre, which means the examiners come here and the dancers are examined in the studio they learned in, with Rhodri at the piano for the ballet grades. RAD sessions are in March and November, ISTD in June and November. Each session has four dates that matter: the entry deadline, when the fee is paid and the entry goes in; the mock, when the class runs the exam in full and the teacher decides who is ready; the exam day; and results day, usually five weeks later.

Entry is by recommendation. In the half term before the deadline the teacher tells you whether your child is ready, and a child who is not is not entered, whatever the age or the friends; that is the whole reason the pass rate is 98% and three in five passes are distinctions. A child who misses a session simply takes the grade at the next one. Nobody is held back from the next class for want of a certificate.

The entry fee is the examining body's fee plus the pianist and the examiner's travel, shared across the session: £48 or £72 for the RAD grades, £42 or £64 for the ISTD, paid at the deadline. From the mock to the exam day there are two extra rehearsal classes for each grade, included. Uniform for the exam is the usual class uniform, clean, with hair as the syllabus requires; we check it at the mock and photograph the bun so you can do it again.

Results come as a certificate and a mark sheet with the examiner's comments on each section, which the teacher goes through with the dancer in the next class. Medals and certificates are presented at the show in July. For dancers thinking about vocational school, the Intermediate Foundation and Intermediate vocational exams are offered from fourteen and Nerys will say plainly whether that path is realistic.

What is included

• RAD ballet exams in March and November; ISTD tap and modern in June and November
• Examined in Studio 1 by a visiting examiner, with Rhodri at the piano for ballet
• The entry deadline, mock, exam day and results day published a term ahead
• Entry by the teacher's recommendation only; optional, never a condition of moving up
• Two extra rehearsal classes per grade between the mock and the exam, included
• A mark sheet with comments, gone through with the dancer in the next class

What it costs

RAD entry £48 for Pre-Primary to Grade 3 and £72 for Grades 4 to 8; ISTD £42 for Primary to Grade 3 and £64 for Grades 4 to 6. Mocks and the extra rehearsal classes are included. Nothing is added. The timetable has every class with its spaces, the term dates and the prices side by side; the exams and shows page has the dates.