The day-to-day work of running a Stagecoach franchise school is very local: families, teachers, venues, timetables. But happily, there are moments that connect it to the bigger picture.
For us, that came with the recent Canadian Franchise Association National Conference at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa.
A group of Stagecoach Ottawa West students performed A Million Dreams with accompanying Makaton sign language, alongside Stagecoach Canada CEO Kristi Wenaus.
They brought the house down.
It was one of those rare moments where you could feel the whole room shift. Parents were watching, the audience was visibly moved, and there wasn’t a dry eye to be found, including mine.
It certainly sat outside our usual rhythm.
There were additional rehearsals to fit in. More communication with families. Preparing students for a very different environment to their usual class. Parents escorted them on the day and stayed to watch.
On the day itself, they arrived at the Westin and performed without a rehearsal in the space. That is a real ask. It would daunt many adult professionals, a new room, a new audience, unfamiliar acoustics, and very little time to settle.
They were incredible.
So much of the day-to-day is scheduling, admin, emails, logistics, and problem-solving. But then you see students walk into an unfamiliar room, hold themselves beautifully, enjoy what they are doing, and move an audience, and it is a privilege to watch.
That feeling of accomplishment matters. You could see it in them afterwards: the pride, the relief, the buzz of having done something that felt big and having handled it well.
So much of what we work on at Stagecoach is adaptability: listening, focus, confidence, responding in the moment, trusting the group, and carrying yourself well even when something feels unfamiliar. Those skills are developed through time in weekly classes, but every so often students get the chance to use them in a setting that makes the purpose of the work very clear.
From the outside, it was a short performance. For them, it was a chance to represent their school in a room far beyond our usual Saturday classroom.
They were also representing more than our own school. Although the students performing were from Stagecoach Ottawa West, the room was seeing Stagecoach Canada in action: students who were prepared, focused, adaptable, and clearly enjoying themselves.
That matters, because it accurately reflects what we are working on week to week. Not performance for performance’s sake, but confidence, discipline, teamwork, and the ability to step into a new situation and handle it well.
Opportunities like this don’t replace the steady work of weekly classes, that’s where confidence is built properly, over time. But they do give students a reference point. A moment where they can see what their work can become when they commit to it.
And really, that is the point of the work: not the admin, not the scheduling, not the planning for its own sake, but creating the conditions for students to walk into an unfamiliar space, fully themselves, and realise they can do it.
It’s magical and it powers me up for another round of admin, that’s for sure.
