Verse & Prose Section Lead Adjudicator - Anne Harris Norman LGSM, FESB, ADB (Ed)

Anne can trace her love of speech and drama to the inspired decision by her mother to send her to "elocution lessons to improve her spelling".  Being dyslexic it did little for her spelling (apart from the revelation that there are far more vowel sounds than signs), but it did open the magic window to an abiding love of verse, speaking, literature, theatre - and indeed to her future career. 

It was while writing a thesis at teacher training college that Anne was introduced to the world of Drama in Education, inspired by the work of Peter Slade and Brian Way.   In 1984 Anne became Head of Drama at The Grange School, Hartford, where during the next ten years she extended private speech and drama lessons to curriculum drama throughout the school, and eventually to GCSE Drama and A Level Theatre Studies.  During the 1980s Anne also became an adjudicator for the Federation of Festivals and an examiner for the English Speaking Board and Guildhall School of Music & Drama. More recently she was pleased to become an examiner for Poetry Vanguard. 

As a former teacher Anne fully appreciates the commitment required to prepare students for festivals, especially bearing in mind the enormous demands of today's work load.  As mother of two daughters who took part in festivals she knows well the parental palpitations of these occasions.  Finally, as an adjudicator she admires tremendously the hard work of the committee and everyone involved.  It is they who make a festival the happy and rewarding experience for all participants.