Exams

Pupils are prepared for exams for half of our academic year of classes, using the other half of the year in preparation for our shows and other performances.

Our ethos for exams is to set our pupils up for success – never failure, so we put individual pupils forward when we believe they will give a confident performance and achieve a great result.

By working this way, we believe children’s confidence will grow. The feeling of going into an exam room well prepared and confident in their own abilities will be reinforced when the results arrive. When a child has gone through the process of sitting an exam and it has been a positive experience leading to a good result on their exam report, it reinforces their self-belief in their own abilities, leading to improved self-esteem and confidence.

Learning is carefully structured and is constant throughout the year. Just because we focus on exam work for 50% of the year does not mean our pupils aren’t learning throughout the remainder of the year, as our individual class teachers are introducing new skills, and techniques into their show performances that will then feature in children’s next exams. 

The exam systems we use;

BATD (British Association of Teachers of Dancing) for Ballet, Tap, Modern and Jazz exams

SDTA (Scottish Dance Teachers' Alliance) Examinations for Highland, Scottish National and Musical Theatre exams.

Acrobatic Arts for Acrobatic Dance exams.

Qualifications Scotland for National Progression Awards, National 5, Higher, Advanced Higher Units for Dance and Performing Arts.

Dates for forthcoming Dance Exams can be found on our 'Key Dates' tab.