I’ve had a lot of conversations with both parents and headteachers recently about what we do at Little Voices and the importance of children having confidence, as well as life skills such as teamwork and communication. What always comes up in conversation is my teaching background. Before becoming Principal of Little Voices Nottingham and Loughborough I had worked in mainstream schools for almost ten years, working in many different roles from a Drama and Music teacher to a Head of Year and most recently Vice Principal in charge of behaviour. My passion when starting out in education many years ago hasn’t changed- it is still to transform children’s lives and in the education system I had always championed the importance of transferable skills: children developing their ability to emotionally regulate, the ability to speak up in the right way and the ability to work collaboratively as part of team.

I used to hate it when those sort of skills were referred to as “soft skills” because to me, it made them sound less important, as if academic skills and other knowledge was more important. When actually, if a children struggles to communicate or cannot work as part of a team, it could be argued that this would have a much more negative impact on their future than not being able to remember a science equation! As I progressed through my different roles in education, I had started to notice the ways in which our education system was not championing these skills and even as a senior leader, it had become very difficult to provide opportunities to teach these skills in a system which seemed to prioritise grades on paper, not how confident or happy a child was. It felt very much like a “one size fits all approach.” Even in my Drama lessons which I hoped could focus on creativity, expression and communication, I was bogged down by endless written tasks the students had to complete, driven by data collection that had no real impact on the students. Drama is supposed to instil confidence and boost creativity and it was so sad to see that this often wasn’t the case in schools driven by performance measures. So I took the leap out of teaching, as they say, to re-ignite my passion for transforming lives, something which had seemingly got lost over the years. And Little Voices did just that. Because at Little Voices, whilst we have our own systems and methods, they all link to one purpose: to prepare every children for a big future through Drama and Singing lessons.

Our lessons aren’t a one size fits all, because with small class sizes of up to 10 children we can focus on every child and bring the best out in each and every one of them. That was just not possible in a class size of thirty, however hard I tried. With small class sizes our Drama and Singing lessons are great for bringing children out of their shell if that is what is needed. But equally if you are wanting your child to develop their skills in Performing Arts, they receive high quality personalised tuition. At Little Voices we work towards a nationally recognised LAMDA qualification- a qualification that adds real value to their CV, fostering teamwork, pride and strong communication skills. It isn’t about striving to be on the West End stage, though naturally some children will take that path. It is about instilling a level of confidence that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives. So if you’re looking for somewhere for your child to build their confidence or you’re looking for an activity that will do more than just develop their Performing Arts skills, look no further.

By Sammi Panesar-Vale- Principal of Little Voices Nottingham and Loughborough