Erin has been awarded a place to attend Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham as a full time vocational student from September 2020. We are immensely proud of what she has achieved as no one in her family has ever done anything like this before! We have no idea where her dancing talent comes from, and no one has attended boarding school either!

Erin started dancing at Northern Dance Centre (https://www.northerndancecentre.com) in Skipton just before her 7th birthday. With the support of all of the fantastic teachers there and her principal Amy Addison she was encouraged to audition for the Royal Ballet School Junior Associates - she got a place and begun training every Saturday in Leeds from September 2017 to present. In April 2019, she auditioned for, and was awarded a place on the Academy of Northern Ballet Centre for Advanced Training programme. This is a vocational training scheme for those who wish to stay at home - at that time Erin was very undecided about moving away and attending boarding school. She shows true dedication to this programme, attending lessons in Leeds on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Over the years she has achieved Distinctions in every ballet exam she has taken, represented Northern Dance Centre at the ISTD Ballet Awards, and this year also gained a place on the prestigious Yorkshire Ballet Seminars summer school.

During this year, Erin came to the decision herself that she wanted to attend a vocational school. Her primary school have always been very supportive, but it is difficult as an 11 year old when you are so focused on ballet and no one else understands the demands and pressure of it, so she wants to attend a school with like minded people who understand all this. Erin reached the final rounds of auditions for both the Royal Ballet School and Elmhurst Ballet School - and on the 30th March her dream came true when she was offered a place at Elmhurst.

However, the difficulty is the cost. She has been awarded an aided place and this will be funded through the governments MDS scheme. Based on their calculations, we need to find approximately £8,000 per year for her. Currently we pay £4500 for all of her lessons at Northern Dance Centre, Northern Ballet CAT and the Royal Ballet. So we have a shortfall. I work as a teacher at a local secondary school, and cannot take on any more work to fund this. Her dad works as an aerospace engineer - we are worried that he will again have to survive the threat of redundancy at this difficult time, as he has had to do when there have been previous downturns in the economy. No one in her family has ever done anything like this, and this is an opportunity of a lifetime. She would not be going to a fee paying school if it wasn’t for the expert ballet tuition she would be receiving, and like with any art we seem to have to pay a lot for it.

It is a big ask in the current economic climate, but we would really appreciate any donations to help fund the shortfall we have calculated. This will help pay for her boarding and tuition. But this is only for one year - so if we reach our goal we will keep on raising money for the following 4 years as she will be there until Year 11. We are going to try and secure funding from the school itself, as well as other fundraising sources, and make sacrifices as a family, but we want to show we are determined to get her there and make a start now.