Following a torrid year for all the children, the pupils attending LAMDA sessions have been keen to enjoy every moment of their rehearsal time. During the lockdowns we utilised the Zoom programme by doing a good deal of radio and television-scripted work, which kept the children engaged and in good spirits. We wrote our own scripts with the older children and even had a Zoom Poetry competition (with our parents getting involved, too)!

The poetry reading was designed to improve sight-reading and encourage the use of voice training using intonation, inflection and pausing, but of course it evolved into a ‘who could say the poem fastest’ competition between the year groups. A six-verse poem with children flying through it at under a minute is quite a feat, with Hector Wade being the fastest of all, and only in Year 5 at the time! The laughter, excitement, enjoyment and, above all, the confidence this brought the children was inspiring.

As we returned to normality, going from Zoom to room, the daunting phrase ‘LAMDA exams’ once again filled the corridors, with newly performance-nervous children asking “Do I have to take the exam?” and exclaiming “My piece is too long, can we cut it?” or “I haven’t had enough time to learn this!”.  Nevertheless, the children gathered themselves and took it all in their stride, smashing their exams (to use a technical drama expression).

We had the highest number of 90%+ grades ever, and one extremely rare 100%.  However, as their teacher, the best feeling was seeing children who had been struggling with self-belief and confidence passing their exams, whether with a Pass, Merit or Distinction.

All children have something to offer - it’s just a case of finding it in them and making them believe in themselves. My approach is to coach every child differently and talk to them as I would want to be spoken to, and this attitude is reflected in their results. I introduce calmness and fun into each session. Happiness is key but I also approach exam preparation as if it could be either a short-distance or a long-distance race. The finish line comes to all of us as a great achievement in itself. No matter what the time recorded may be, the end result is the same: ‘You finished’.

I can tell my pupils that they are great but when an outside judge, who doesn’t know them, reflects what I have been saying and gives them the result they truly deserve, that child’s trust, belief and confidence grows. Equally, pure percentages are not always reflective of what we have achieved – that is dependent on the individual, their starting point and their goals.

One parent got quite emotional when finding out the result of their child, not because they scored a particularly high mark but because, now, they know their child has that ability to achieve what they thought was improbable.

The final result of the last round of exams, after a year of disturbance and lockdown, saw outstanding results, with 44 children taking their LAMDA exams in June, achieving a pass rate of 100%, with 71% gaining Distinctions. A quite remarkable feat.

Dave Phaure

Pictured: Four of our recent LAMDA performers, celebrating their excellent results