Lucy's blog

If you read my blogs regularly, you'll know that I like to talk about communication skills and how important it is that we make children confident communicators from an early age. As you might expect, this is something that we are passionate about at Perform. In fact,...

There’s been a lot of discussion in the press recently about Pamela Druckman’s intriguingly named book,  French Children Don’t Throw Food, which promises "parenting secrets from Paris". I’m always a bit sceptical about...

It is a fact universally acknowledged (thank you Jane Austen) that parenting is difficult. There's no real training course, no previous experience and yet the risks if you get it wrong are serious and far-reaching. In particular, as parents, we are challenged with...

We all know the magic of going to see a live performance. And I really believe (well I would, wouldn't I?) that it's really important to expose children to live theatre from as young as you can. And what better time to do this than in the panto season? The time of year...

A good friend of mine was told last week that her five-year-old daughter would always be at a disadvantage educationally because she had been born in July. This advice was given to her by an experienced teacher at a well-known secondary school who said that this was such a...

I took my 4 year old son to a birthday party last week. Just before we got there, he fell over and so was a bit tearful and clingy when we arrived. He didn't want to join in with the rest of his friends who were being entertained by a well-known local clown. Tom's a...

I was chatting with a friend of mine today about her new job. She's now a "Play Specialist" at a Central London Hospital. The role has many different responsibilities but her major focus is on using "play" to prepare children for treatment, distract...

One of the team at Perform - let's call her Jane - is dyslexic. I've been aware of this for a long time but I didn't realise until yesterday that she wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until she was 21 years old and at drama school. It was discovered when she...

Darling, look at Jane when she says hello to you! Does that sound familiar to you? Have you ever said it to your own child? I know I have! I've always been passionate about helping children make eye contact, especially when they meet new people or talk to adults. I...

When we train our teachers for Perform classes, one of the sections we spend the longest time working on is their voices. I'm not talking about their singing voices here; they are, after all, trained actors and singers and wouldn't get to the training stage if they...