In The Public Eye
A mark of The Dragon's distinctiveness has been the
attention it has received from the media. The Dragon has twice been featured on
TVO, in the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, CBC radio, and is now the subject
of a documentary film project being undertaken by Michael Seven and Paola
Salamao.
Ruby Skye, P.I.
Ruby Skye, P.I., an imaginative and award-winning web series, was filmed and set at Dragon. It is a sort of online Nancy Drew, a detective series for kids in the 8-14 age range, featuring a 15 year old Dragon student detective who uses her wits and her ability to read people to solve crimes. It's a charming comedy, with lots of action and , of course, underlying educational goals.
To read about Ruby Skye's awards, click HERE
Documentary Video
Radio Spots
The Dragon at 96.3 by Dr. Meg Fox
Dragon students are fiercely loyal to their school.
They love to talk about it, explain what makes it so different, why they like
coming here so much. It's hard to get them to leave when it's time for their
teachers to lock up and go home. Parents say to us, "I wish there'd been a
place like The Dragon when I was in high school." There's no doubt The Dragon
is a gem, but aren't there lots of people who should know about it? How do we
reach them?
Kate's mum Vicki Ollers has made a profession of
public relations, and she surprised us by urging that we arrange some radio
spots. Her reasoning was that a lot of parents of students in grades 4 to 6
were driving their kids to and from elementary school in quiet desperation
about where they should go next. And what were they listening to in the car?
Classical music.
We were a bit skeptical. She sent us the statistics.
Classical 96.3 was the chosen station for this demographic. We did an informal
survey. By the time the tenth parent who called during peak chauffeuring hours
said they were tuned into that station, we were convinced.
The next question was about voices and scripts. We all
know The Dragon curriculum is challenging, our teachers extraordinary, but
after all it is our students who are the best testimonial to what it is that
makes The Dragon stand out. We wanted those parents behind the wheel to hear
the voices of our students, telling their own stories.
But what, we asked Vicki, makes a story? She told us
the key questions were "Why did you come to The Dragon?" And "What has The
Dragon given you?" So we started asking everyone in the community. There was
remarkable consistency in their answers. They were unhappy at their previous
schools, bored, bullied, excluded, ignored, grasping for support for their
interests and needs. The Dragon curriculum was compelling and meaningful, their
teachers were engaged with what they taught, and that enthusiasm was
contagious. Their teachers were mentors as well as models. Students found their
opinions respected, their strengths challenged, their challenges accommodated.
It was a true community. It felt like a family. They wanted to come to school.
They wished it were a boarding school. Why hadn't we set up The Dragon
University?
From these recurrent themes, we wove together a couple
of brief narratives, changing the names to protect the innocent, the stories of
"Lucy" and "Dan". The experts tweaked them to make them more professional, and
on Friday morning, Robin's mother Deirdre Baker drove two brave volunteers down
to Queen and River Streets to record our first Dragon radio commercials.
Tim Ratledge, the sound engineer, walked us past a
million CDs, and put us at our ease in the studio, laughingly agreeing that the
scripts were at little "cheesy"-because Dragon students are astute critics, and
not afraid to speak their minds-but reminding us that we only had 30 seconds to
grab the attention of the listener, and that anyone who responded to this
teaser would surely go to the website or come and visit and find out the
wonderfully complicated truth about our school. Then came the moment when first
"Lucy" and then "Dan" were alone in the booth, headphones on, having a
conversation with the microphone. Tim's warmth and good humour rescued them
from nerves, as he coached them to the perfect take. He told us they were more
responsive and articulate than many a professional.
Our last step was choosing music from the library of
tracks to which the station had rights. We played around with everything from
baroque (we sounded like we were peddling specialty teas) to elevator pop (a
furniture warehouse) and settled on two different tracks: a cool but upbeat
jazz riff for "Lucy's" artsy confidence, an optimistic, folksy sound for
"Dan's" relief at finally being challenged.
