The Royal Ballet School

The Royal Ballet School’s Outstanding Pastoral Care

[1] Each Royal Ballet School staff member upholds their duty of care to support students, who can turn to specific staff for different aspects of their well-being. For example, each student has an academic tutor who helps with schoolwork matters, while the school nurses and healthcare team offer pastoral support.

Staff also help students protect their well-being by teaching them foundation and performance skills:

Foundation skills include self-management, social management, self-awareness, social awareness, and moral-ethical decision making.

Performance skills include self-efficacy, maintaining motivation, handling mistakes, performing under pressure, and tackling perfectionism.

The Royal Ballet School’s Approach to Well-Being

The foundation and performance skills that Royal Ballet School staff teach mirror the School’s Approach to Well-being. This Approach lays out the School’s efforts to promote students’ emotional health.

Staff uphold the Approach to Well-being by:

Asking students for their perspectives and using these to influence decisions.

Supporting students’ social and emotional learning throughout the curriculum and helping them become more resilient.

Protecting their own well-being as well as students’ well-being.

Pinpointing opportunities for pastoral care development and monitoring the impact of interventions.

Engaging with parents and carers to protect student well-being.

Maintaining an environment and ethos that encourages respect and celebrates diversity.

Making appropriate referrals and offering targeted support.

Several staff members also take mental health first aid training. This training develops their understanding of the importance of mental health support for students.

Plus, the School’s mental health lead, who is also a clinical psychologist, works with all teams to help staff recognise changes in student behaviour. These behavioural changes may signal a need for further pastoral care.

Pastoral Care for Boarders

All Royal Ballet School students belong to a boarding house, where they develop friendships with peers and strong relationships with boarding staff.

These relationships blossom from the day students join their boarding houses. Each boarding team cultivates a welcoming, home-from-home environment with a supportive induction plan.

When Year 7 students join White Lodge[2] [3] , they meet a Year 8 guide, who becomes a friend right away. Their Year 8 guide gives them a decorated ballet shoe as a welcome present. Year 7 students also receive a Royal Ballet School teddy bear as a welcome gift.

The School also welcomes new students in other year groups. These students receive support from a student guide as they settle in, too.

Meanwhile, students joining Upper School[4] [5] enjoy an orientation weekend. During this weekend, they explore their new local area and home in the centre of London.

Extra-Curricular and Social Activities

Making time for social activities is essential to well-being. As a result, The Royal Ballet School makes sure all students have access to weekend trips and pastimes.

White Lodge students often enjoy trips to museums, the cinema, and the London Eye. They also spend time swimming, baking, and relaxing with friends, perhaps by going bowling, taking part in a craft workshop, or getting together for a film night.

Living in central London, the older Upper School students have a wealth of attractions on their doorstep to relax and spend time with friends.

Career Support for Upper School Students

Pastoral support can be particularly useful for Upper School students who are preparing for their careers as performers or choreographers.

The Royal Ballet School supports all students with this process, helping them develop applications for dance companies around the world. Staff also help students complete their Professional Practice Module in the final year of their degree programme.

Furthermore, Artistic staff work with students to understand their ambitions before contacting artistic directors around the world. These directors may have suitable career opportunities for graduating dancers. Often, these opportunities give dancers the exposure they need to launch successful ballet careers.

Transition Support for White Lodge Students

Pastoral support is also essential for White Lodge students as they transition from Years 9 to 10, 11, and 12. Students can join the artistic manager and academic and pastoral principal for bespoke planning meetings to aid these transitions.

Staff also guide students through the process of producing video and photographic audition materials.

Protecting Staff Well-Being

The Royal Ballet School knows that for staff to offer a high level of care to students, they must also be able to protect their own well-being. To uphold staff well-being, the School enrols all staff on a confidential, independent employee assistance programme.

The School also holds a Well-being Committee meeting every half-term. This meeting gives staff an opportunity to discuss new well-being provisions and the success of provisions that are already in place.

Furthermore, the School allocates every team with a Well-being Committee representative. This individual ensures every staff member in their area has the chance to share their input into the School’s wellness provisions.

Promoting Emotional Well-Being Through Events and Activities

Students have access to The Royal Ballet School’s pastoral care whenever they need it. But the School also hosts a variety of events and activities to inspire emotional well-being.

Here are four of the events that students have enjoyed so far in 2023.

1. Pride Month

The Royal Ballet School has made several efforts to ensure LGBTQ+ students feel included and celebrated at school. For example, every year, The School celebrates Pride Month to recognise LGBTQ+ history and culture.

Staff Developments to Support LGBTQ+ Students

During Pride Month (June), Assistant Housemistress of Aud Jebsen Hall Donna Balsdon discussed the School’s latest developments to advance diversity and inclusion.

These developments include:

Replacing male and female house registers with genderless registers.

Staff wearing rainbow-coloured lanyards.

New LGBTQ+ resources in the common rooms. These resources include a Pride noticeboard and a Pride articles folder.

Staff completing Educare Equality and Diversity training at the beginning of the year.

Pride Month Activities to Promote Inclusion

During Pride Month, the School arranged for students to enjoy several activities that promote inclusion. These activities included tie-dying tote bags in Pride colours, baking rainbow cakes, and collecting LGBTQ+ books. Students also launched a Pride-themed book club and enjoyed a talk from Educate and Celebrate’s Elly Barns.

Students in Aud Jebsen Hall decorated their boarding house with flags and celebrated a different Pride icon on their house noticeboard each day of the month.

The School’s Pride efforts extended outside the School, too. Staff accompanied students to London, where they took part in the Pride march.

Learning About the History of Pride Month

Activities aside, students also learnt about the history of Pride Month. Staff explained that the celebratory month came into being in 1969 after the Stonewall riots against homophobia. Today, The Royal Ballet School is one of many organisations that celebrates Pride Month to support the LGBTQ+ community and reflect on the prejudices it has faced.

Since completing a course from Stonewall — “Improving LGBTQ+ young people’s mental health and well-being” — Balsdon has developed an action plan to help the School offer a high level of support to LGBTQ+ students.

Celebrating Visibility Events

Pride Month is just one of the visibility events that The Royal Ballet School celebrates. The School also marks visibility days like International Transgender Day of Visibility to represent and support every staff and student member.

2. Assemblée Internationale

[6] Shortly before Pride Month, The Royal Ballet School also got involved in Assemblée Internationale, a festival that Canada’s National Ballet School organises.

Anti-Black racism was the theme of this year’s festival. The Royal Ballet School was keen to support this theme, which complements its aim to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion.

An Olympic-calibre group of artistic directors and dancers welcomes organisations and individuals from training schools across the world to this festival. Royal Ballet School students attended the festival in Toronto with the School’s CEO and Artistic Director Christopher Powney, Chief Operating Officer Pippa Adamson, and Second Year Ballet Teacher Paul Lewis.

The Purpose of Assemblée Internationale

Assemblée Internationale allows young artists to develop their leadership skills and work closely with global peers. They also play a key role in the progression of equity in the international ballet community.

Together, young people have the opportunity to pave the way for change in the ballet art form. They also work to strengthen the language of ballet, making this language more relevant and powerful for today’s diverse society.

Preparing For Assemblée Internationale

Dancers from 37 schools learnt routines over Zoom to perform at the festival. Students choreographed some of these pieces, and professionals choreographed others. Preparation for the festival also included a variety of keynotes, discussions, and educational panels.

Royal Ballet School student Caspar Lench played an essential role in preparation for the event. As part of the Assemblée Internationale think tank, he joined frequent online meetings to prepare with international students.

Lench completed this preparation alongside his Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), in which he explored discrimination and prejudice. He had already studied Black artists and choreographers — a core element of The Royal Ballet School curriculum — in his second year. This study inspired his contributions to the think tank.

3. Mental Health Awareness Week

[7] The Royal Ballet School also prepared activities to acknowledge Mental Health Awareness Week in May. Designed to relieve anxiety, both students and staff enjoyed the following activities:

Creating gratitude jars to focus on the positives they feel grateful for.

Making playlists of mood-boosting songs to share with friends and family.

Hula hooping to explore the connection between physical movement and positive emotions.

Enjoying the outdoors on treasure hunts to explore natural surroundings.

Spending reflective time to focus inward and take time for themselves.

Anxiety-Themed Email Tips and Support

During Mental Health Awareness Week, School Counsellor Lucy Bailie and Mental Health Lead Christian Uitzinger prepared daily emails to educate staff and students on anxiety.

These emails focused on what anxiety is and how worry or fear can manifest in different people. Bailie and Uitzinger also delved into anxiety that dancers may experience and how the School can help students avoid and alleviate this. Their tips included spending time in nature, body scanning, box breathing, and connecting with friends.

4. Stress Awareness Month

[8] Shortly before Mental Health Awareness Week, The Royal Ballet School also acknowledged Stress Awareness Month. During April, staff helped students focus on the ways that stress may affect their daily lives and how to handle this.

Although The Royal Ballet School placed a special focus on emotional well-being for Stress Awareness Month, open discussions about worry and anxiety are also key to the School’s Healthy Dancer Programme, which runs all year round.

The Royal Ballet School’s Healthy Dancer Programme

The Healthy Dancer Programme forms the core of The Royal Ballet School’s pastoral offerings. The School crafted the Programme to ensure each student receives the support they need to uphold — and take responsibility for — their emotional, psychological, and physical health.

Students receive advice and guidance from a specialist team of 20 healthcare professionals. These professionals include a healthcare manager, clinical psychologist, counsellors, physiotherapists, rehabilitation ballet instructors, sports physicians, nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches, Pilates instructors, and school nurses.

The professionals work with the artistic team to inform the School’s system of training. They also create a safe environment for students to explore and strengthen all areas of their health and well-being. And they provide a variety of resources to support students in all areas of wellness.

As part of the Healthy Dancer Programme, students complete screening exercises every term. The School collects data from the screening exercises to craft a unique conditioning programme for every student.

The School also works with the English Institute of Sport (EIS) to offer thorough nutrition support to students. An EIS nutritionist works with the catering team and students for two days each week, providing bespoke nutrition advice and educating students on healthy attitudes to fuelling their bodies for elite performance.

On top of this, students attend sessions with counsellors, who focus on performance psychology and psychological well-being.

Students can also self-refer for counselling at both of the School’s sites and report concerns anonymously through an app.

Promoting Well-Being, Now and in the Future

Following Pride Month, Assemblée Internationale, Mental Health Awareness Week, and Stress Awareness Month, The Royal Ballet School looks forward to promoting well-being throughout the rest of the year and beyond.

About The Royal Ballet School

The Royal Ballet School is shaping the future of classical ballet, both by protecting its history and by replacing outdated ballet training methods with modern approaches. Students become established ballet dancers who are also adept in a variety of other dance styles. These dancers go on to work with notable companies like The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Visit The Royal Ballet School’s website.

Sources for this section:

Academic and pastoral information (from Academic Principal) Word doc

Supporting Dancers’ Mental Well-Being: The Royal Ballet School’s Pastoral Care

Suggested link: https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/discover/academic-boarding/life-at-white-lodge/

Yes

Suggested link: https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/discover/academic-boarding/life-at-upper-school/

Yes

Sources for this section:

Source for this section: https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2023/05/23/coping-with-anxiety-mental-health-awareness-week-2023/

Sources for this section: https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2023/04/12/how-we-help-students-and-staff-manage-stress-stress-awareness-month-2023/

Founded almost 100 years ago, The Royal Ballet School has produced generations of iconic dancers, including Margot Fonteyn and Darcey Bussell.

Although places on The Royal Ballet School’s full-time training course in London are highly coveted, the School believes that creative dance education should be accessible to all.

To broaden access to dance education, The Royal Ballet School launched the Primary Steps Programme in 2006. Through this programme, primary school children in England and Wales can discover the joy of ballet in their local area.

Raising The Barre for Dance Education

The advantages of teaching children dance are well understood, with research demonstrating its many physiological and psychological benefits. The Royal Ballet School understands that dance is an essential tool that can enrich children’s well-being and curriculum learning.

By extension, the Primary Steps Programme has introduced thousands of primary school students to ballet. Primary Steps nurtures children’s talents through after-school classes and performance opportunities.

The programme also helps participants and their families discover further dance pathways. Primary Steps connects young dancers to local and national dance infrastructure. Graduates of the programme have pursued pre-vocational and vocational studies at:

The Royal Ballet School, London.

Elmhurst Ballet School, Birmingham.

Moorland International Ballet Academy, Clitheroe.

The Lowry, Salford.

The Place, London.

Swindon Dance.

Dance4, Nottingham.

DanceEast, Ipswich.

Primary Steps acts as a springboard for many talented students who wish to pursue formal dance training. But the programme also offers children a fun space to explore the art form and socialise. Primary Steps graduates note that the programme helped them make new friends and grow in confidence.

Creative Ballet Education for Students in Years 3 to 6

The Primary Steps Programme caters to children aged 7 to 11 (school Years 3 to 6). Students at participating schools benefit from the programme’s two parts: autumn term workshops and weekly after-school classes.

1. Autumn Term Workshops

Primary Steps runs a continuing professional development (CPD) day for Year 3 teachers in the autumn term of the academic year. This CPD day takes place at The Royal Ballet School. In addition, the teachers’ students take part in five creative ballet workshops. Led by specialist instructors, the autumn workshops can contribute to Arts Award Discover.

Participating schools then receive:

Five creative ballet workshops for all Year 3 children.

CPD and resource materials to support further dance classes.

An interactive ballet training demonstration with Royal Ballet School students.

2. Weekly After-School Classes

Selected Year 3 students from participating schools go on to attend weekly creative ballet classes. The classes take place at a local host secondary school and are an ideal medium for Arts Award Explore. Students can attend classes up to the age of 11.

For a small fee, participants receive:

Weekly creative dance classes. Taught by Royal Ballet School teachers, the classes also feature live musical accompaniment.

Dance shoes and uniform.

Chances to see Royal Ballet School students training and performances from professional dancers.

Trips to local and regional dance companies.

Opportunities to perform at The Royal Ballet School and locally.

Making Dance Accessible in England and Wales

The Primary Steps Programme allows children in England and Wales to access a high-quality dance education in their local area. The programme partners with national dance agencies and secondary schools to target regions of economic, social, and cultural diversity.

Funded in part by the Department for Education, the programme operates in 34 primary schools (28 in England and 6 in Wales) and 6 centres in Blackpool, Bury St Edmunds, Cardiff, Dagenham, Mansfield, and Swindon.

1. Blackpool

Primary Steps works with Highfurlong School, The Lowry, and the following primary schools in Blackpool:

Revoe Learning Academy.

Boundary Primary School.

Anchorsholme Academy.

Bispham Endowed Church of England Primary.

Layton Primary.

2. Bury St Edmunds

Primary Steps works with DanceEast, King Edward VI School, and the following primary schools in Bury St Edmunds:

Hardwick Primary.

Guildhall Feoffment Community Primary.

Sexton’s Manor Primary.

Tollgate Primary.

Westgate Community Primary.

Howard Community Primary.

3. Cardiff

Primary Steps works with Rubicon Dance and the following primary schools in Cardiff:

● Ysgol Glan Morfa.

Moorland Primary.

Adamsdown Primary.

Tredegarville C.W. Primary.

Baden Powell Primary.

Stacey Primary.

4. Dagenham

Primary Steps works with Trinity Laban, The Place, Dagenham Park Church of England School, and the following primary schools in Dagenham:

William Ford Church of England Junior.

Beam County Primary.

John Perry Primary.

Godwin Primary.

Marsh Green Primary.

5. Mansfield

Primary Steps works with Dance4, Manor Academy, and the following primary schools in Mansfield:

Forest Town Primary.

Birklands Primary.

Farmilo Primary.

The Flying High Academy — Ladybrook.

Heatherley Primary.

Peafield Lane Academy.

Northfield Primary.

6. Swindon

Primary Steps works with Swindon Dance and the following primary schools in Swindon:

Lainesmead Primary.

Tregoze Primary.

Lawn Primary.

Mountford Manor Primary.

Lethbridge Primary.

Primary Steps on Demand

To expand the scope of the Primary Steps Programme beyond England and Wales, The Royal Ballet School now offers Primary Steps on Demand. Primary Steps on Demand offers primary schools worldwide a complete dance programme from the experienced Royal Ballet School team.

The flexible, online programme is available through the School’s video-on-demand platform. Primary Steps on Demand is available from £3 per student, and teachers don’t need any dance teaching experience to implement the programme.

The programme includes:

Video classes covering cross-curricular themes and core concepts of movement in ballet.

Movement guides, such as warm-ups and cool-downs.

Lesson plans and tutorials for teachers.

Resources for students.

CPD webinars and live virtual workshops.

Almost 20 Years of Primary Steps

For almost two decades, Primary Steps has increased accessibility to creative dance education in the UK. Alongside its workshops and classes, the programme provides opportunities to experience dance creation and performance. It also connects students and their families to regional dance infrastructure.

By leveraging The Royal Ballet School’s unique resources and expertise, Primary Steps also supports dance teaching in participating schools.

Through the Primary Steps Programme, The Royal Ballet School demonstrates the impact of creative dance on curriculum enrichment and learning through movement. Children who take part in the programme can enjoy enhanced health, well-being, and academic and social skills. Some may even become the world’s next ballet stars.

Learn more about The Royal Ballet School’s Primary Steps Programme.

About The Royal Ballet School

Established in 1926, The Royal Ballet School is one of the world’s most prestigious dance schools. Former students include Anya Linden, Kenneth MacMillan, Lauren Cuthbertson, and Christopher Wheeldon.

Full-time students train in London for up to eight years. They pursue their dance and academic studies with support from the pastoral team and Healthy Dancer Programme. Many graduates go on to work at The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and top global dance companies.

It takes ballet dancers years of training and dedication to hone their craft and perfect their performance skills. As a result, a career as a professional ballet dancer can come with considerable physical and psychological demands.

As one of the world’s foremost centres of classical ballet training excellence, The Royal Ballet School in London thoroughly prepares its students for careers in dance. The School produces healthy, resilient young dancers and invests in its students’ long-term health through the Healthy Dancer Programme.

The future of classical ballet healthcare

Students of The Royal Ballet School undertake extensive physical training alongside their academic studies. These young artistic athletes work hard to develop their natural talent for classical ballet and other dance styles, such as character and contemporary.

The Healthy Dancer Programme underpins all training students experience at the School. The goal of this programme is to strengthen the whole dancer, encompassing their physical, mental, and emotional health. This holistic approach to healthcare helps students realise their full artistic potential and prepares them for successful careers in classical ballet.

A dedicated team of 20 healthcare professionals manages the programme, supporting and educating students from the age of 11. This team includes:

Physiotherapists.

Rehabilitation ballet instructors.

Strength and conditioning coaches.

Sports physicians.

Pilates instructors.

Performance nutritionists.

Medical practitioners.

A clinical psychologist, who is also the School’s mental health and safeguarding lead.

Counsellors, who look after students’ psychological well-being and support their training with a focus on performance psychology.

The healthcare team works closely with the School’s academic, artistic, and pastoral staff to create the highest-quality care for every student. The innovative healthcare programme is pioneering in its use of a holistic approach to training dancers.

Leveraging science and data for personalised healthcare

The Healthy Dancer Programme teaches students to understand their bodies and minds, empowering dancers to play a leading role in their well-being.As such, The Royal Ballet School has developed a wellness app for students to record and monitor their daily health. Students can input data on factors like hydration, training load, quality of sleep, and anxiety levels. This data feeds into a database, called Smartabase, that builds a unique profile for every student.

Students also undergo screening exercises each term, and this information contributes to each young dancer’s Smartabase profile. In addition, the health screening allows the healthcare team to create custom conditioning programmes to support each student in their training.

The healthcare teams at The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet also track data through Smartabase. This means the three organisations can collaborate and share research. The collective Smartabase data creates a body of research that informs the School’s artistic programme and provides insights for the wider dance community.

On top of this, the School works with leading sports science institutions at Queen Mary University of London and St Mary’s University, Twickenham.

The Royal Ballet School hopes this cutting-edge research will illuminate the unique healthcare challenges dancers face and allow the School to offer its students the best possible support.

Meeting the growing demands of a classical ballet career

Leticia Dias, an artist at The Royal Ballet and a former Royal Ballet School student, says psychological support is one of the most important aspects of healthcare for ballet dancers. “It’s nice to know that someone is there if you want to speak to them.”

Matthew Ball is another former Royal Ballet School student who is now a principal dancer at The Royal Ballet. He explains that it’s always “quite a shock to the system” for a dancer to experience an injury. Psychological support is as important as physical rehabilitation when injuries occur.

Ball adds that, while it’s important to preserve ballet’s rich tradition and culture, the demands of the discipline are always evolving. The Healthy Dancer Programme puts these changing requirements at the heart of its work.

“Some people have been trained in a certain way, so they’re not used to seeing dancers work in a parallel position or train with weights,” Ball says. “But that’s necessary for what we’re putting our bodies through.”

Pushing the boundaries of healthcare for the next generation

The Royal Ballet School hopes that the Healthy Dancer Programme will ultimately influence and advance the training of young dancers all over the world.

Kevin O’Hare, the director of The Royal Ballet, has expressed his delight at what the Healthy Dancer Programme means for graduates of the School who might join the dance company.

O’Haire explained that these “wonderfully informed dancers” can expect “a really strong career because they know from the beginning what it takes to be a professional dancer.”

He added: “That informed knowledge is what will keep their career going for many years to come.”

About The Royal Ballet School

For almost 100 years, The Royal Ballet School has nurtured, educated, and trained exceptional young dancers for careers with leading dance companies like The Royal Ballet. Some of the School’s most famous alumni include Margot Fonteyn, Kenneth MacMillan, Darcey Bussell, and Matthew Ball.

The School’s admissions process evaluates only a dancer’s talent and potential in classical ballet. Currently, an average of 88% of students receive financial support to attend the School.

Full-time training with the School can last up to eight years and comprises four programmes:

Foundation Programme (White Lodge), for students aged 11–14. This is the first stage of a student’s training journey.

Development Programme (White Lodge), for students aged 14–16. This builds on the classical ballet training from the Foundation Programme.

Vocational Programme (Upper School), for students aged 16–18. Students with the potential to progress to a career in classical ballet at the highest level pursue this programme.

Pre-Professional Programme (Upper School), for students aged 18–19. This final year of training focuses on professional repertoire and preparing for entry into professional careers. The Pre-Professional Programme includes work experience opportunities with The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

The School gives students extensive training in classical ballet (plus various other dance styles) and academic studies that span a broad curriculum. A comprehensive healthcare programme and robust pastoral support ensure young dancers are healthy and happy.