Information For Current Speak Up Families
Our carefully thought out curriculum guides and supports your child as they develop their sense of self and learn how to communicate, interact, and question the world around them. The skills and knowledge we teach in our Speech and Drama classes are always put into practice in performances throughout the year.
There are four terms in the Speak Up year and four performances. Each performance has its own focus and builds upon the last. Building incredible humans is what we do, and performance is key to how we do it.
There is a special type of magic that can only be found in performance. It crystallises learning. It brings together our values of confidence, communication and creativity to produce life-changing ‘a-ha!’ moments. It is powerful. It is transformative. It is joyful.
…by the way, if it sounds like we are enamoured with performance and the learning experiences we have crafted at Speak Up, it’s because we are! You won’t find anything quite like us around.
Term 1 is all about finding our feet in our drama classroom, getting to know our teacher and connecting with our classmates. We also create our very first performance for our parents in parent watching week. With a focus on self-expression, term 1 sets our students up for success throughout the Speak Up year.
Next, we focus on positivity and getting up and having a go. Our Imagination Festival is a low-key group choral speaking performance. It’s all about teamwork, dramatic exploration and giving students a taste of what’s to come towards the end of the year. It’s a low-stakes event with big rewards. Special commendations are awarded for Confidence, Communication and Creativity.
With two performances under our belts, we get into the nitty gritty of technique with our Studio Awards. Students engage with challenging content and new performance methods to create an in-class group performance and receive feedback from their teacher and a certificate of achievement. They are designed to prepare kids for individual Speech and Drama exams later on if they wish.
It wouldn’t be a Speak Up year if we didn’t go out with a bang! Our final term builds up to an incredible display of confidence, creativity and technique at our concert. Speak Up kids LOVE their end of year performance, and it’s no wonder why. The concert consolidates their learning and progress into a joyful, pride-filled moment that will stay with them forever.
Our four programs cater for students from Prep to Grade 12. Our small classes allow us to cater our lessons to the needs of our students. Each program is embedded with performance opportunities to enrich our students’ experience and propel their growth. You can join a Speak Up class in week 1-4 of each term.
Your little one is at big school and ready to take on the world. Explorers are uninhibited and free, and drama harnesses that energy and puts it to use as we develop confidence, creativity and public speaking skills. Lessons are filled with rhymes, songs, stories and structured make-believe games that feed their imagination.
They might still be little but their ideas are big. At this stage, your child is reading at a whole new level, telling more complex stories, and developing all new ways of interacting. Through humorous poems and engaging stories, we equip Storytellers with the technical and expressive skills needed to bring their ideas to life in class, in words, and on stage.
The magic of literature and language comes alive! Inventors are starting to work at a more advanced level of text interpretation, communication and improvisation. They’re sure of the stories they want to tell and the characters they want to play. With a focus on public speaking and plays, students explore how voice and gesture support meaning and develop crucial critical thinking skills.
Speak Up kids love the spotlight, but know there’s so much more to Speech and Drama. Our high schoolers have their very own home away from home in our Dreamers program; one that praises uniqueness, encourages trial and error, and teaches them to hold space for themselves and others. Find out more at www.dreamersdrama.com.au