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Hi Tom, yes as you say, drills can be used as a management tool, apart from being useful for practising pron and intonation. Did you ever do whisper drills? That's what we used to do sometimes, because loud drilling used to bother the group next door :)

I use drills in every lesson I teach. I like to do a lot of different activities, as I am convinced this keeps up the attention of the children. Drills are one of the best activities to do when you notice the attention is gowing down. Children like it, it is very useful to practise pronounciation and especially children love it. Children with a higher level can also do the drills, and there are a lot of different ways to do the drills (different contents, chants, words or sentences, individual, group, boys only, girls only, chain drills,how fast can you say it, say it with a funny voice, say it wioth a sad tone,..). In some groups the children even suggest a certain way to do a drill.
In some groups with older students there might be a bit of a resistance in the beginning, but once they are used to it they also love to do it. In other words : I am a big fan of drills.