Students attending Senglea Primary School are benefitting from the Helen O’Grady Academy development programme, supported by The Alfred Mizzi Foundation.

Since 2008, the foundation has been encouraging Year 4 and 5 students to attend the drama classes.

While thanking the foundation, academy principal Alan Montanaro said that the importance of drama as a development tool was indisputable.

Children who learned to speak out clearly and relate enthusiastically and confidently with others usually developed skills that made the journey through life much easier.

“We feel it is the academy’s responsibility to make its product more accessible to more children,” he said.

The drama academy provides children between the ages of three and 17 with opportunities to develop clear speech, fluent delivery and pleasing social skills.

The programme gives children the confidence to participate in all aspects of their lives, enables them to ask questions, seek answers and share information with others.

The understanding of English through usage is also a very important byproduct of the academy’s curriculum.

“The Academy takes a very naturalistic approach to teaching drama,” said Montanaro.