by Amy de Putron The one thing I hope for most as a parent is that my kids will grow up to be decent human beings. I try to teach my son and daughter to be respectful to others, but I wonder sometimes if this is enough, especially when it comes to gender. How will I teach my son to respect women? It’s obvious
by Amy de Putron Even before I started working at Speak Up, I knew about the Speech and Drama classes they held. In fact, my eldest attended lessons at his school when he was in prep. I signed him up as an outlet for all the dramatic energy he seemed to have in the classroom. Drama classes were a place where he could be
Does practice make perfect? Perfection is not what we should be aiming for. Rather we should try hard, practise, and aim to be the best we can be in the amount of time given. We see the most significant progress in the students who have been with us for a while. Great progress takes time. It doesn’t simply matter how good you are at
by Amy de Putron How much do you protect your child from seeing scary things? Parents all handle this differently. We should, of course, use our own judgement on how we protect our children. After all, all kids are different and we are the ones who know them best. My kids handle scary stuff differently. There is a small age gap but my eldest
Our Speak Up kids have made a great video to show you our Speech and Drama warm up they will be practising for the end of year concert. This is a fantastic warm up to do as it moves through each important part of our body, from our voice to our posture. We reach up tall and collapse down small, before carefully rolling up
When parents enrol their children in Speak Up classes we send them a little questionnaire to fill in about their child. One of the questions is, “What brought you to Speak Up?” By far the most common reason parents enrol their children in our Speech and Drama classes is because they can see their child’s creative and confident side at home and they want
We know what it can be like at the end of the day. You have just got the kids home after a busy day and they are starting to lose it. They are sad, cranky and complaining that they’re bored. This is often the time of day that they are desperate to connect and have a little time with you, but also when you
by Miss Cathy Clur The most common concern I hear from new Speak Up Studio parents is, “My child is full of confidence at home, but as soon as she is in front of people she doesn’t know, she becomes quiet and shy.” Parents hope that by participating in drama their child will learn to “let go”. I agree, that drama is very good
by Amy de Putron What did you want to be when you were growing up? I wanted to be many things. The first I can remember was a florist. When I was older it was a composer, and then a conductor. I loved music and I seemed to do ok at it, so I decided to pursue my passion. As life would turn out,
Our Speech and Drama teachers are all bookworms and take inspiration for their classes from a huge variety of children’s books they love. Books that inspire our teachers have wonderful characters, magical storylines and positive messages. We asked the staff at Speak Up, what books inspire them. These are inspirational books for teachers and you will see why. We think they are books every