About Us
We believe individuality is the source of original thought, the driver of change.
In 1983, Julia Gabriel opened a small teaching studio in her home in Singapore to put into practice the ideals and philosophy she had developed in England. She decided that, as speech and drama had helped her to develop confidence as a child, she wanted to share her experiences with her own children and those of her friends who became her first students.
Speech and drama in Singapore was an instant hit! Word went around quickly and in 1990 Julia and her husband David set up Julia Gabriel Centre in an old black and white house in Halifax Road. The centre began with Julia and two other speech and drama teachers, an assistant teacher and a two-person administration team.
Fuelled by the creativity, dedication and passion of gifted educators and support staff, more programmes were added to meet growing demands: Written Language Arts (now called Readers & Writers), PlayClub for toddlers and parents, PlayNest for children from 6 months, programmes in Mandarin and our very own preschool, Chiltern House (in the house next door to Julia Gabiel Centre). Julia Gabriel Centre also became the Singapore representative of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama (the external examinations department of which later merged with Trinity College London) and established a School Support Services department to take our programmes out to schools.
In 1991, Julia Gabriel Centre became the first speech and drama centre to be registered with Singapore’s Ministry of Education. This enabled us to take out our English EduDrama programmes to preschools, primary schools and secondary schools throughout Singapore.
In 1998, the houses in Halifax Road were earmarked for demolition and Julia Gabriel Centre shifted our operations to Forum in Orchard Road. Our flagship centre has remained in Forum ever since, taking up the 4th floor of the shopping mall. (The first Chiltern House centre remained in Halifax Road – but moved to another house further down the road – before moving to Thomson Road in 2017.)
As the Julia Gabriel Education team grew, more Chiltern Houses opened (1999 at Forum, 2001 at Turf Club Road; 2003 at the East Coast and 2010 in Mountbatten). There are 5 Chiltern Houses operating in Singapore today.
In 2002, the Julia Gabriel School of Education (our adult training division) was formed to train teachers, which enabled the start of overseas joint venture centres in New Delhi. In 2004, our first combined Chiltern House and Julia Gabriel Centre opened in Jakarta. A centre in Kuala Lumpur opened in 2006. In 2007, a centre was opened in Shanghai. In some of these places, there are now multiple centres. In 2019, a new Julia Gabriel Centre also opened in Bangkok. Today, Julia Gabriel Centre speech and drama programmes are now also available in Ho Chi Minh City, while Chengzhu Mandarin enrichment programmes are also available through our partner organisation in Sydney.
As part of our community service, Julia Gabriel Centre has been organising the annual Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships since 1999 – a competition which involves school from across Singapore every year.