Foreshore School Pupils Excite Parents with the Pied Piper Play

Foreshore School Pupils Excite Parents with the Pied Piper Play

Funmi Ogundare

It was excitement all the way recently, as pupils of the Foreshore School, Ikoyi, enacted ‘the Pied Piper’ play to the amazement of parents, management and other guests present at the show held at Terra Culture, Victoria Island.

The play was culled from a book written by Robert Browning which talks about how a piper was able to save a town (Hamelin) from rat infestation,
However, when they refused to pay him back for his deed, he gets revenge. The people of Hamelin, overrun with rats, offered a bag of gold to anyone who can get rid of the rats. A piper offers to do the job, and successfully lures the rats into a mirage of cheese, which disappears.

After piping the town free of rats, the villagers refused to pay the Pied Piper for the service and he piped away their children too.

The Executive Director of the school, Ms. Oyindamola Egbeyemi told journalists that the stage play was a good way of exposing the children to a new experience away from what they were already used to in the classroom.

“It is a phenomenal approach because it is more important to try and test the limits of children’s talents. Children at the Foreshore School are the bold and confident ones. So by this play, we are taking all that boldness and inquisitiveness outside of the school.”

On the school’s approach to learning and education, she said it is about the 21st century classroom and thinking outside the box. This she said was why the programme was moved outside of the school to expose the children to what they could experience in real life.

“We will always continue with the theoretical education which is something we cannot do without now, which are the regular numeracy and literacy, but the 21st century workplace, requires skills such as communication, public speaking, leadership, creative thinking and innovation. So if we don’t expose the children to new environment, they won’t be able to start developing skills,” Egbeyemi stressed.

The Head of School and the initiatior of the play, Mrs. Helen Oyewole said the choice of the play was about the morals it would teach which is keeping to your words, adding that it was part of the school’s way of celebrating the Christmas season and showing love.

“Having the rats was the humorous part of it. Children have talents beyond academics, so we wanted to showcase the fact that life is not all about academics, the chldren have other gifts that they can display.”

On the performance of the children, she said she is always a firm believer in children’s talents and not someone to give up on their capability to perform when given any task, adding that the children’s performance at the stage play has reaffirmed that believe.

“They have not let me down, but did exceedingly well. I am proud of them.”
Asked how extra-curricula activities impact learning, she said: “A lot; drama is part of English Language so by engaging in this activity, it helps their verbal and non- verbal communication skills.”

Related Articles