The theme of the 2021 Summer Enhancement Programme, which was held over three consecutive days in mid-July was Drama based. Students in Form 1 and Form 2 re-read parts of their class-reader-stories, Horrid Henry (F1) and Miss Daisy is Crazy (F2), and then acted the scenes out, to form a “full production” of the story. The Summer Programme classes gave students ample opportunity to practise their English skills in a fun and informal environment.

The course began with some warm-up Drama games and a short introduction to mime and voice projection. Students then read parts of the story aloud to refresh their memories of the context.

The stories were known to the students given they were covered in the course curriculum yet still students laughed joyfully at the humour at the respective stories. Students were given autonomy to the part of the story they wished to reenact and were empowered to add other parts of dialogue and sound where they desired, within the guidelines. This activity enabled the students to collaboratively communicate the story through mime, voice, music and dance.

Following the summer programme, students commented on the stories as “funny and meaningful” and “wanted to read other stories of the same genre”.

Although some props were provided for the performances, and most students chose to make their own and use those, in addition, all students used their electronic devices to source and use music to add to the suspense and dramatisation of the stories. A student commented that they “had recently learned this skill in their ICT lesson” and were able to “use it in their English summer programme”.

The 2021 Summer Enhancement Course was quite meaningful for students. Students gained exposure to English stories and drama. The students particularly enjoyed the drama activity and did their best to speak loudly and fluently.

Student Reflections:

2C Jacky Zhou

This was amazing! I loved it! I hadn’t realized how using props and music brought the story to life. I was scared at first to do the freeze-frames because I didn’t really understand why they were important but Mr. Varma showed us how they help set the setting, you don’t need words to show the audience where it is happening! I really enjoyed this course and will definitely read more stories like this. Can I do it again next year?

2D Xavier Leung

I really enjoyed the Summer Enhancement Programme. I had forgotten how funny the story was. I did find it difficult to come up with extra dialogue, but Mr. Varma helped me and before long I was adding a few words here and there which added to the storylines. I really enjoyed the summer programme! I would definitely recommend this to my classmates.