100 signatures reached
To: Dance teaching societies (RAD, ISTD, BBO, IDTA, BTDA etc)
Mandatory child protection training for all dance teachers
Insist on annual, mandatory online CPD covering safe dance training principles and safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, including appropriate use of social media.
Why is this important?
Responsible dance teachers and parents have become concerned by various social media posts whereby children are being exposed to dangerous practices including (but not limited to) children stretching box splits with one foot on a chair and the other on the floor with comment from the teacher about 'pain and tears, children as young as two years old being celebrated for taking part in acro/'strength' classes wearing ankle weights, teachers boasting about children training for hours on end and more.
We know that the dance training industry is not regulated, and we know that teachers who are guilty of dangerous practices may or may not be qualified or registered. We also know that some of the schools who partake in this sort of activity are also highly successful at large, financially rewarding competitions including international ones such as representing the UK at the Dance World Cup, and have a lot of media exposure including being scouted for tv shows such as Britains Got Talent, The Greatest Dancer etc. It appears that parents are willing to put their children in harmful situations for this level of ‘success’ and reward and while ultimately parents are responsible for their children, we as responsible dance teachers believe that more should be done to help educate and inform parents of the dangers involved with heavy training loads, extreme overstretching and other pressures.
If all teachers were reminded yearly of the need to consider the safety, health and happiness of their students this would go a long way to helping.
We know that the dance training industry is not regulated, and we know that teachers who are guilty of dangerous practices may or may not be qualified or registered. We also know that some of the schools who partake in this sort of activity are also highly successful at large, financially rewarding competitions including international ones such as representing the UK at the Dance World Cup, and have a lot of media exposure including being scouted for tv shows such as Britains Got Talent, The Greatest Dancer etc. It appears that parents are willing to put their children in harmful situations for this level of ‘success’ and reward and while ultimately parents are responsible for their children, we as responsible dance teachers believe that more should be done to help educate and inform parents of the dangers involved with heavy training loads, extreme overstretching and other pressures.
If all teachers were reminded yearly of the need to consider the safety, health and happiness of their students this would go a long way to helping.
