This year has been full of surprises for all of us! Its been a definite whirlwind as we have had to adjust to so many changes, but change is good because it keeps you on your toes!
First of all Jillian Chivell who was our head teacher last year, officially became our school manager this year. She has done a stellar job as school manager and the transition while scary, has been relatively smooth. Jillian has shown herself to be extremely committed to ensuring our students get the most out of our program. She has also led the our staff and teachers with grace, compassion and strength. We have been very lucky indeed to have her steady hand at the helm this year.
We gained a few more schools this year, which is always exciting. New students, principals and parents to get to know and of course new challenges! We couldn’t be more grateful to those new schools for the opportunity!This year we ushered in some new teachers and we have been thrilled with their dedication and achievements this year. We also saw the return of a very familiar face, Miss Moodley who has joined the team again and we are very happy to have her back! Lastly we launched a new website, which I think is much better than the previous version 🙂
In the beginning of the year we introduced the ‘one pic a week’ campaign. We asked teachers to send a least one picture of one of their classes a week. We then post these pics on Facebook to share with parents and friends of our page. We feel it is very important for parents to see what their children are doing in Drama, which is why we decided to launch this new campaign. So far we have received a positive and enthusiastic response from all, so we will do our best to keep on posting those pics!
In term 2 we started rehearsals for the Cape Town Drama Eisteddfod. This year we made the decision to set Saturday mornings aside for Eisteddfod practice, instead of practising during the week after Drama class. Students came to our offices in Rondebosch and practised with us for 10 weeks in term 2. We saw a huge difference from previous years. We found our students more refreshed on Saturday mornings than they were during the week after class. We found that issues such interruption from other students or teachers, when were rehearsing at the schools, were no longer obstacles. The end result was that out of the 10 students who entered, 6 received diploma and 4 received Honours Plus or Honours. We were all very proud indeed.
Now it is term 3 and we are gearing up for our end of year concert. I can’t believe it’s that time of year again!!This year our theme is ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’. The students seem very excited and we hope that thoroughly enjoy the rehearsal process, because that’s where all the fun and learning happens. We can’t wait to see them on stage. Good luck everyone!