Lucy's blog

Like everyone else, I was shocked and saddened to read about Amy Winehouse yesterday. With hindsight, looking back at that footage from the Belgrade concert a few weeks ago, it was pretty clear that something was definitely not right - even more so than over the past few...

On January 8th 2000, I opened my first Perform class. Me, a teacher and four children. It went pretty well - all things considered. But, afterwards, when I was talking to the parents about my plans to eventually open Perform all over London, one of the mums said that my...

Louisa was five when I first met her a year ago. She turned up looking small and terrified. In fact, I'd never seen a child so nervous before. Children often get a bit teary at their first session but Louisa was distraught. Her mum was in a similarly panicked state...

With half term approaching and the British weather being what it is, it's always a good idea to be prepared and plan some activities to avoid finding yourself with a house full of grumpy bored faces. So here are my top favourite 'rainy day' activities purloined...

Before I had my own children, I had very clear ideas about the way in which I was going to bring them up. Having taught so many and seen so many parents 'parent', I thought I knew it all. Hmmm... The reality, of course, has been very different. There are so many...

It's probably no surprise to you that I'm a big believer in the power of song. So I was really pleased to read this Guardian article that a friend forwarded to me this week; http://bit.ly/moqAbc. It's about a new book written by Sally Goddard Blythe, a...

Earlier this month, we organised some Diwali-themed entertainment at a Mela (a Diwali celebration) at the Nehru Centre in Central London. We devised a theatre arts workshop which we did with 70 children based on the Diwali story. Diwali (popularly known as the...

I've been watching Rebecca Ferguson's journey through X Factor with interest. Remember her first audition? Beautiful girl; wonderful voice - and yet as she admitted herself, she's lost confidence. As Simon said "you've got to start looking people...

Confidence is something that we'd all love to be able to infuse our children with - I'm sure many parents have wished it was something you could bottle and administer now and again. Alas, I fear science still has some way to go on that front... In the meantime,...

At Perform we talk a lot about the benefits of drama in terms of child development; we tend to break it down to the four Cs: Confidence; Communication; Concentration and Coordination. Whilst of course drama does indeed benefit children in these core areas, of late I've...