Help to get Harrison to Tring Park Performing Arts School

Rebecca Howard is organizing this fundraiser.

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Calling all donors & businesses!

This is my son Harrison, 11 years old, he currently attends Hagley Primary and lives in Hayley Green.

Harrison is a top ballroom & Latin dancer and he has spent the past six months auditioning for the UK's top four dance/ performing arts vocational secondary schools. These schools were the London Royal Ballet school, Elmhurst (associated with the Birmingham Royal Ballet), The Hammond and Tring Park Performing arts school.

Over a thousand UK & international dancers applied for these 200 golden places across the four schools. After 15 dance auditions, two academic assessments, two medicals and three interviews.....

Harrison surprisingly managed to receive two full time boarding offers and one part time offer from three of the four schools. On top of that we found ourselves in an incredibly unique situation (which is explained in more detail below) where Harrison was offered a scholarship for a completely different course.

We originally allowed Harrison to audition for the dance only pathways within these schools, this is because the dance courses receive funding via the MDS music & dance scheme. After auditioning for the dance only pathway at Tring Park Harrison was suppose to attend an audition for the musical theatre course which I deliberately didn't take him to. Knowing the performing arts courses cost £225,000 we knew we couldn't afford it and therefore didn't want our then 10 year old being left disappointed. A week after the missed audition we received a call from Tring Park asking for us to reconsider as the musical theatre team within the school are keen to see him audition for that course, I explained that I couldn't afford it and they replied that although scholarships aren't guaranteed there's that possibility should Harrison be successful in the audition. Harrison then proceeded into the unknown having never sung or acted before (other than in the school nativity play 6 years ago). We enlisted the help of local singing & acting teacher Vicky from VMTS to teach him how to both sing & act within just two manic weeks. After that wave of auditions Harrison was invited to attend the schools scholarship auditions. Following these he was offered a scholarship to Tring Park Performing arts for the full performing arts course (singing, dancing & acting)

With alumni such as Dame Julie Andrews, Lily James, Ella Henderson..... TV stars in peaky blinders, game of thrones, Dr who and the like, film stars in Star wars, Disney movies ect.... Performers that work within all of the top musicals, to say we were over the moon is an understatement.

However due to Labour putting the tax onto private schools this year costs have increased and even with the scholarship we still have to fund a small percentage of the fees. We are therefore looking for businesses or anyone that can help us find sponsorship of around £12k a year. The £12k now includes the £9000 Labour tax, remaining fees, insurance, school uniform which we can only purchase from Billings & Edmonds (the supplier of the Eton and Westminster uniforms) dance wear, computer equipment and the endless supply of dance shoes required. The £12,000 seems like a huge ask but for a school that's £45,000 per annum for the same prestigious training as many superstars it's an amazing opportunity.

What we can offer:

Harrison has a personal social media following of 11,000 which has a large percentage of local people following. We are happy to promote any business far and wide.

Should Harrison become famous when his older, you can be his number one guest to any film premiere and red carpet event he attends. We will get you tickets for any shows he performs in and an endless supply of autographs from him and his friends.

More importantly we will then teach him to return the favour and provide sponsorship onto someone else.

I hate having to ask for sponsorship as it's not a very British thing asking for help, but we want Harrison to be able to accept this once in a life time opportunity given it's the UK's most prestigious performing arts school. If you can help please message me or email danse-[email redacted].uk

Harrison's Story:

Harrison aka H, started Hagley Primary as any normal kid being one of Mr Farley's first students in the school. H found school a little overwhelming and for the first two years school anxiety caused him to vomit daily in class. H was sick so often that he started to bring up blood clots, he was under the hospital and placed on permanent daily adult medication. A short while after we started to experiment with after school hobbies, we allowed H to try football, tennis, kick boxing ect none of which he took to. We then proceeded to take him to dance classes (not to dads approval) but something just magically changed. Harrison found this passion for the arts which filled his missing confidence. After his first performances and competitions his school sickness just vanished and we were able to take him off all of the medications.

Harrison danced his first ballroom & Latin competition in the Blackpool winter gardens aged 8, him and his dance partner place 47th out of 50+ couples. At the competition awards he asked me how he could make the finals and I explained the time, hours and dedication it requires to improve on his position. The following 12 months Harrison decided to train for hours daily and when he returned to the comp the following year he made the finals and placed 4th in the UK at this top national dance event. A few few short months after he was 2nd in the UK in the under 10 year olds section in addition to winning all local/ regional comps weekly.

From then his passion grew, he has trained with Netflix's Baby Ballroom teacher Warren Bullock, Strictlys Amy Dowden, Oti Mabuse, Neil Jones, Jowita Prystal, Lauren Oakley, Katya Jones and more alongside attending events with the dance queen Shirley Ballas. This on top of his weekly ballet classes at the Hagley school of dance and Halesowen's Cannon Dance academy.

H has performed in a couple of Amy Dowdens shows, at Oti Mabuse's Christmas party and was selected to cast in the English Youth Ballet productions of Giselle and Coppelia.

This year alone he was shortlisted to audition for the west ends Mary Poppins, Matilda & Oliver and he was also asked to tape for the new TV series of Harry Potter. However rather then rush and become a childhood star, we want to prioritise a full performing arts secondary education. We are confident that Tring Park will fully prepare him to enter the entertainment industry as a young adult where he will then have a mature skill set to navigate his own talents accordingly.

I hope you have enjoyed reading Harrison's story and viewing his pictures. If anyone can help please do let us know. I did contact local Labour MP's and had no response, I spoke to the Mayor or DMBC that has followed Harrison over the years but being apart of Labour she also couldn't offer any support.

Please Help!