Julia Gabriel's personal story

I developed self-confidence through Speech and Drama

As a very shy 11-year old (I couldn't put my hand up in class because everyone would look at me!) my life changed when I became a Speech and Drama student. I learned to communicate through role-play and feel secure playing a part, to trust others in process drama and performance and, finally, to believe in myself. Speech and Drama helped me develop self-confidence.

In 1980 my husband David and I left our first careers behind in Singapore to study in England for three years. David took a second degree, in law, and I studied to become a Speech and Drama teacher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London College of Music. Our family of three, Mark was 5 when we arrived in England, soon became four when Emma was born in 1981. My children and their friends were not only my first students, in a small attic studio at home, they were the ones I learned most from.

We returned to Singapore in 1983 and converted the car port of our house into another home studio where I could develop a teaching practice. From a small base of family and friends my students grew steadily until they almost took over our home. So, in 1990, David and I formed Julia Gabriel Communications and moved into an old colonial house with two other drama teachers, an assistant teacher and a small office. From the start, David looked after the business development, finance and administration, I focused on our students and teaching. Our tiny, idealistic team planned, dreamed and cried together, shared and supported, cleaned up and worked all hours to attract more like-minded, passionate teachers and droves of students.

Throughout the 1990's our vision of an ideal learning environment expanded. I became the Singapore representative for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and slowly built the range of programmes our students needed. David directed the development of systems and structure to support and guide our growth.

At the start of the new millennium we had opened a second Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning (JGCL) and four pre-schools, named after my parents' home in England, Chiltern House. By 2002, we needed Julia Gabriel School of Education to train teachers and enable centres to open in New Delhi and DLF Gurgaon, India, followed, in 2004, by Chiltern House and Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning Jakarta in Indonesia.

We recognised the unique nature of our approach to learning in 2004, by naming our methodology and signature programme EduDrama. EduDrama is the magic ingredient in all our programmes and centres including Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which opened in April 2006, and Shanghai, China, which opened in February 2007.

EduDrama helped us develop confidence in ourselves as market leaders — we are now in five countries — just as it helped the shy 11-year old discover the right to speak in the 1960s. Today I have a masters degree in Early Childhood education and am proud to have been awarded honorary life membership of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I enjoy teaching and learning all over the world with adults who want to make a difference in the lives of children, by empowering them to be successful, happy, productive self-leaders, actively engaged in life. To help others develop these qualities, we must express and experience them ourselves, because children absorb what's around them. I pick teachers with passion and a special disposition for working with children, and focus my time on them now, because they are the models children learn from. The more playful, creative and aware the teacher, the richer the experience for children, and the more hopeful the future!

Watching children learning through drama and play as I travel, my view of education has broadened to include the roles of parents and wider family. How important it is that young children are nurtured by secure family attachments, to foster positive self-esteem. All of us at Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning work hard to create an environment of enquiry and observation, wonder and curiosity, imagination and creativity, to encourage children's exploration, response and healthy growth from a secure parent and teacher partnership.

What an exciting journey life is. I still have a wealth of learning ahead, and miles to go before I sleep. What inspires me to keep stretching? Great writing (I read voraciously and have launched a pet project recently: Julia's Book Club); my own teachers in England, Australia and Singapore; my ever-changing family; the children I work with and the value of the work we do. Sensitive listening, language and communication become increasingly important as the world becomes more uncertain. Successful navigation of life's complexities demands self-leadership.

Self-leadership is the future.

Join me on the journey, and express your best self!