Early years Teacher
Miss Croud has been dancing since the age of 3 and has been at CCDA since 2011. Throughout her time at CCDA, she has had numerous opportunities to perform at different events, be part of competition groups, and take many exams all the way through to vocational level exams. She has also had the pleasure of assisting in the classes for the younger part of the school.
In 2012, Miss Croud was fortunate enough to perform at Her Majesty’s Theatre Dury Lane, and in 2019, she performed at Sadlers’ Wells. As a member of the Performance Group, she had the chance to dance at many events and pantos. This group gave her the first opportunity to choreograph a dance, which was used for part of her GCSE PE. It was through this experience that she knew she wanted to assist in lessons with the younger part of the school.
Miss Croud began assisting in 2016 by taking the registers for the Saturday morning Dance Basement classes. As her confidence grew, she moved on to help and assist in the Saturday Morning Leisure Centre classes for the younger part of the school, where she has been the assistant ever since. Her confidence has significantly increased since she began assisting with the classes. She now volunteers at the Summer Show and Presentation Awards to help manage parts of the backstage (quick changes and supervising the younger members of the school) when she is not assisting with the younger groups on stage.
She has been a member of both the Tap Competition Group and the Harmony Competition Group (musical theatre). She was appointed Dance Captain in the Harmony Competition Group due to her experience of assisting with classes. Her job was to ensure that everyone understood the choreography and was comfortable with the dance parts of the numbers. This role helped improve how she assisted with classes; she learned how to teach the younger students and what methods of teaching work best for different ages.
Miss Croud enjoys assisting in the classes as she gets to see the children progress through the grades and improve their technique and confidence in themselves. The best part of the year for her is seeing the students perform in the Summer Show and noting how much they have improved from the year before. Over the years she has been helping with the classes, she has gotten to know many students. Most of the students who were in the classes when she first started helping have now progressed up the school. However, when they see her, they still ask her how they can improve on certain things they are learning for the grade that they are in. One of her favourite parts of helping is being given the chance to lead the class in an exercise or a warm-up. Overall, being an assistant has helped Miss Croud grow as a person and learn skills that she will use for the rest of her life.
