SUMMER SEMINAR

Principals from the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy met earlier this month on the beautiful island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands for another informative and motivating seminar. Part of the day was spent workshopping the curriculum for the new term and, as always, Principals joined in with gusto!

PRINCIPALS, HELEN WALLS (BROMLEY)

AND BECKY GOODFIELD (SOUTH WALES)

DEBATE A POINT IN A YOUTH THEATRE GAME

NORTH SURREY PRINCIPALS, ANDY BEYNON

AND LISA DAVIDSON ARE VERY GOOD FRIENDS REALLY!

As part of the proceedings at the July Seminar Nigel Le Page presents his National Director's Award to a Principal who has made an outstanding contribution in some way. Portsmouth Principal, Anrea Ward, was delighted to receive the award in recognition of the work she had put in to help her sister, who is Director of the charity Village Africa, organise a national ambulance drive. See earlier blogs for full details.

ANDREA RECEIVES HER AWARD FROM

NATIONAL DIRECTOR, NIGEL LE PAGE

After a busy day, everyone took the boat over to Herm for a barbecue - with tropical island theme dress! It was a beautiful evening and the dress made it very colourful to say the least!

ANA VAZ AND LILIANA BRITES, WHO

RUN A BRANCH OF THE ACADEMY IN PORTUGAL

BETH DANIEL, WHO WILL RUN

THE NORTH LEICESTERSHIRE BRANCH

AND GILL HOLLIS FROM SOUTH MANCHESTER

At these events there is always a prize for the best male and best female fancy dress of the evening. This is always a difficult decision as everyone makes a huge effort.

PRESTON PRICIPAL SARAH IBBOTSON

CERTAINLY LOOKED THE PART!

NOT SO EASY FOR THE MEN ....
'NICKOLA' (NICK) CHADWIN, SHEFFIELD PRINCIPAL,
FOUGHT OFF THE COMPETITION

THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
TRAINING MANAGER - MARGARET DARLEY
NATIONAL DIRECTOR - NIGEL LE PAGE
EXECUTIVE PRINCIPAL - ALISON MAZANEC

END OF TERM IN KINDY DRAMA

Children from East Harptree Pre-school in Somerset finished their last term in nursery with a presentation of the Kindy Drama skills they had been practising through the year. Academy Training Manager, Margaret Darley, teaches the classes and was delighted to meet parents and show them the progress their children had made. After a rousing 'Hello Song' the children demonstrated their speech exercises, with lots of actions!

BIG BRIGHT BEACH BALLS BOUNCE, BOUNCE, BOUNCE!

The movement section involved them in different expressions, and helped their concentration as Margaret demonstrated the required emotion and they copied.

WE ARE VERY EXCITED CHILDREN!

Lessons are split into themes and their most recent one was 'Beach & Ocean' and the class performed an adapted version of a Lower Primary Mime to Music called the Giant Octopus - ably assisted by their teacher, Lynne, as the octopus.

WE'RE NOT SCARED OF THE OCTOPUS!

To help listening skills the children are required to follow a series of instructions - helped by their class mates of course!

I AM WADDLING LIKE A PENGUIN!

To finish their show, each child had a finger puppet of some kind of sea creature and they sang 'The Fish In The Sea Go Swim, Swim, Swim' to the tune of 'The Wheels On The Bus'. Nursery Manager, Margaret Ballantyne, was happy to join in.

THE SEAHORSES GO UP AND DOWN, UP AND DOWN .......

All that remained was the singing of the 'Goodbye Song' and the show was over. Many of these children will now move on to primary drama classes in the new school year and Margaret is looking forward to meeting the new class in September for another exciting year of Kindy Drama.

TRAINING NEW PRINCIPALS

The end of July sees the latest training week in Bristol for Helen O'Grady Principals who will be commencing operating in September. Above, National Director, Nigel Le Page, Executive Principal, Alison Mazanec and Training Manager, Margaret Darley, prepare for the week ahead.

Training includes a lot of Principal participation, whether it be with the admin. systems (above) or with the Mimes to Music. Margaret demonstrates a vital administration point and, below, new Principals (L to R), Phil Jankovskis (Staffordshire), Natasha Kedrova (Kiev) and Beth Daniel (North Leics) act out The Eskimos mime. It's hard work!

So everyone needs to relax afterwards. Natasha is seen below with Barbara and Malcolm Ryder (St. Helens/Warrington) at the post training dinner. Barbara is demonstrating her traditional 'fluffy pen' award!

Later, the visitors to Bristol have to experience the local nightlife. Nigel, Beth and Margaret fought through the crowds to see a local jazz band.

Training week over, the new Principals return home to start planning for an amazing launch in September. All at Head Office thank them for making the week great fun and wish them all the luck in the world!