Growth and Gold at the end of the Rainbow

The students at Rainbow Montessori School in Durbanville are a true testament to the benefits of the Helen O’ Grady Drama programme.

Students were first introduced to the curriculum during demonstration classes in March 2015, soon after which they enrolled in their numbers. The programme was well received and what started as one class was quickly split into two.

One year later and the classes have expanded to include a Kindy age group as well!

This is all due to the exciting, interactive, confidence building activities included in each lesson.

Every week students get to explore characters they rarely have the opportunity to imagine. They get to go on adventures few have the courage to dream of. And every week they watch and observe as class mates soar, finding new ways to express themselves, work together and deliver stellar presentations.

And all of this in the comfort of their own school.

Whether the difference and growth can be seen in the student numbers or performance or even the behaviour of students we count ourselves privileged to be part of each and every child’s development journey.

We look forward to many more years at Rainbow Montessori.

Who knows, we could be at your school too!

Make a Dramatic Difference at School

Helen O’ Grady offers drama classes at a number of studios across the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town as well as the Winelands areas.

We also offer drama as an after school programme at a number of schools.
While some may question the merits of a drama programme at a school with an already full extra-curricular programme, we offer these answers:

Drama at school stimulates CREATIVITY IN PROBLEM SOLVING
Drama activities can CHALLENGE STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS about their world and about themselves.
Dramatic exploration as seen in our lessons can provide students with an outlet for EMOTIONS, THOUGHTS and DREAMS, that they might not otherwise have a platform to EXPRESS.
With our improvisations students can BECOME ANOTHER, explore a new role, try out and experiment with various personal choices and solutions to very real problems- or problems faced by characters in literature or historical figures.

De Tyger's Primary Group doing an Improv

Of course, at the core of Helen O’ Grady is COMMUNICATION, CONFIDENCE and CREATIVITY.

In this way drama REINFORCES the rest of the school curriculum giving students the all-round development they need. 

Lights. Camera. PRODUCTIONS

Productions are a great time of the year when teachers, students and parents lose sleep, teeth and hair while they gear up for the highlight of the drama year.

A great part about Helen O’ Grady productions is that no one has to audition. The students ALL get to be a part of the action.

Another exciting element is that our productions will be performed at a real theatre at the end of the curriculum year. HOW EXCITING.

Real lights, real props and costumes and of course, real drama.

We are very excited as we’ll start working towards those productions in the coming weeks. Teachers will be revealing the 2015 plays to their classes, casting and sharing what we’ll be showing our friends and family at the end of this year.

We hope our parents and friends will support us this year as they have in the past so that, together, we can put on a showcase of our young talent and hard work.

We look forward to a grueling but fun build up to PRODUCTIONS 2015.

Keep your eyes on this page, our Facebook  for details around this year’s Productions.

Make a Move!

This term’s Movement curriculum will explore the Eight Basic Efforts. The Eight Basic Efforts include Weight Awareness activities including: Punching, Floating, Slashing, Gliding, Pressing, Flicking, Wringing and Dabbing.

This week the Lower and Upper Primary groups will conclude their introduction to these efforts and would have practised each discipline in isolation as well as in sequence with its opposite.

The Movement exercises are done to show students how their bodies can be used to express various efforts. While some of the disciplines are strong, direct and sustained their opposites are light, indirect and sudden. 

This will assist students in all their movements across the stage whether it be in an improv or snippet and this is especially valuable during the performances of Mimes to Music.

Build - an- Improv

Every term brings something new for our students to learn and enjoy.

This term the Upper Primary group have started doing Structured Improvs. During these scenes the students build the Improv as led by their own ad-libbing. Not only will this improve our creative thinking but also encourage strong ad-libbing skills.

So far, the students have enjoyed the new activity as it allows them to add key-lines and show that they do not only possess the skill to present their characters, they can direct and create as well.

The way the improvs have been structured for this group this term allow the students to be part of the development of the plot structure. The curriculum and the teacher set the outline and progression while students fill in the rest.

This exercise is especially valuable as many of these students are being prepared to progress to the Youth Theatre group.