Medal Tests

Our dancers take yearly Medal Tests with a Scottish Dance Teacher Alliance (SDTA) qualified examiner.  The Medal Test dance syllabus is designed to show graduated progression in both practical and theory exams.  Instructors choose which level Medal Tests are taken by their students and each exam carries a fee.  Students cover the syllabus work during the year and may need to attend intensive, extra sessions to revise and prepare for their examinations. 

Examinations are important to Highland Dance as they create goal setting, motivate a higher quality of dancing, certifies the dancers’ years of hard work, and lets them grow and measure their knowledge of Highland Dancing.  They assure dancer and parent that quality work is taught, and offer a lasting memento of the years of training in developing basic technique, physical fitness, stamina, and presentation skills. 

Medal Tests are broken into Highland, National, Theory, Jig and Hornpipe categories. The date, time, location and fee schedule of medal tests will be emailed as soon as possible once the examination period is communicated to us.  Fees must be pre-paid before examination day.  The tour dates are set by the SDTA office in Scotland based on the number of exams in our dance region (Ontario, Eastern Canada). We send in estimates, as do all other schools/teachers in our region, and the schedule is created based on those estimates. As you can imagine, coordinating so many dancers and exams in so vast a region is rather complicated. The timing of the tour is not within our control. We realise this means it will not always be a convenient time for individual families. 

Dress Code: 

We want our dancers to feel confident in their exams, and some of that requires dressing the part!