How SEN pupils have experienced and benefitted from Shakespeare.

For students at Middlesbrough’s Priory Woods School & Arts College, the study of Shakespeare has become an everyday part of life. Priory Woods, which caters for 4 to 19 year olds with Special Educational Needs, has worked with the RSC for a number of years to embed the rehearsal room approaches to Shakespeare into its classrooms.

Having received training in RSC rehearsal room practices, teachers at the school developed their own schemes of work to immerse students into the world of Shakespeare and his plays. The key has been an ‘active’ approach to learning.

Pictured: Rehearsals in Middlesbrough, featuring young people from various schools, including Priory Woods, 2015. Photo by Rob Freeman.

‘On their feet’ and ‘doing it’ warm-up techniques that explore the characters, themes and plots of Shakespeare are now used to develop students’ speaking and listening skills. Rather than sitting down at a desk, pupils are encouraged to use their bodies to create physical actions, helping them to remember and understand important characters and plots in the text. 

In a similar vein, dance is used to encourage students to create their own ideas to depict a scene from a play, and script work first of all involves paraphrasing the language (as actors would in a rehearsal room) as a means of exploring the general theme of a scene.

Upper School teacher Aimee explains that, “This type of learning is perfect for our students because it is hands on and practical. It’s something that everyone can get involved in as part of team, working together to produce something that makes them feel really good about themselves”.

Children and young people at Priory Woods have had their aspirations raised so much that they now perform their own Shakespeare play annually. The RSC worked with teachers and students at Priory Woods, and other schools in Middlesbrough, to create a performance of Henry V, described by pupils as ‘amazing’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘breath-taking’. Upper School teacher Gillian notes that “using RSC led approaches works so well especially for those who are not very vocal, it just gives them that confidence to believe that ‘I can get up and be that person”.

This kind of motivation carries itself out into later life. A group of post-16 students received qualifications from the AQA (Assessment and Qualification Alliance) as part of their work in Henry V, and one student who performed on stage at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre said she would use her new-found confidence and speaking skills ‘when I go for an interview’.

As Gillian exclaims, "In our school the buzz word is Shakespeare!”. 

Middlesbrough’s Archibald Primary School has pioneered a new project to improve literacy for lower pathway children, inspired by the RSC.

When Headteacher Anita Jeffries was making her way around Archibald Primary School in Middlesbrough one Monday morning, she was accosted by an enthusiastic group of Year 5 pupils. “We’re going to have a battle…we’re in Scotland!”, they explained, as they rushed to the main hall. 

The class was to spend the morning scrutinising Macbeth as part of Archibald’s 'In My Mind’s Eye' project, an initiative to improve literacy amongst its Key Stage 2 pupils. 'In My Mind’s Eye' has taken the RSC’s rehearsal room learning techniques as a vehicle to improve skills for less able writers in lower pathway classes, particularly those with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and English as an Additional Language (EAL). 

The project aims to transport children who struggle with reading and writing into the story and world of the play, exploring how Shakespeare’s characters feel, what they see, hear, touch and smell. By capturing a child’s imagination, their interest and curiosity are stimulated which, with teacher guidance, can release new vocabulary and create the need to write.

The children produce one piece of writing every two or three weeks, beginning with a session based on RSC rehearsal room approaches. This session develops a specific objective from the national curriculum, and the children go on to plan and edit their writing over the next fortnight. 

During that Monday morning Macbeth session, children listened to a vivid description of the bleak Scottish heathland and then prepared for battle, forming shapes and freeze-frames with their bodies. Later in the day, the pupils created ‘sentence cards’, using the actions from the battle to learn how to use conjunctives and fronted adverbials to form sentences.

The next morning, the class recapped on the previous day’s activities. With arms around each other’s shoulders, they trod the aftermath of the battlefield. What could they see? What could they hear? They class responded vividly: “dripping in blood”, “weeping, shouting”, “broken bones cracking”, “proud with swords in the air”, were some of the more gory responses. The class would later go on to write an account of the battle using full sentences – a scene that had been built in their ‘mind’s eye’ over two days.

Lisa, Year 4 classroom teacher, explains the impact that this approach has on her pupils: “RSC approaches work in enhancing children’s memory, giving them the experience that they wouldn’t otherwise have, to act out the scene and to actually become those characters You can see the difference in their writing; I don’t think I could get the children to produce this quality of writing without the Shakespeare work”.

Although still in its early stages, 'In My Mind’s Eye' continues to make progress within school. Children in lower ability groups are being given the opportunity to close the gap between their literacy attainment and that of their peers in middle and higher ability groups. As Jackie Blyth, Subject Lead for English, puts it, “Everyone involved in the project has seen each child flourish as a writer who cares about their intended audience.  They have made rapid progress and have a new found passion for writing.”

A Middlesbrough school has seen its KS2 SATs results leap to 94%, and Shakespeare is at the heart of it.

Archibald Primary School has seen its Key Stage 2 SATs results leap to 94%*, a result that Head Teacher Anita Jeffries and her staff firmly attribute to their work with the RSC. 

"On hearing about our SATs results in English a number of schools in the area have been in touch to find out more about our classroom model. Hopefully we can now expand the circle of schools that we work with as part of the RSC Associate Schools programme and share our practice and expertise”, she enthuses.

Pictured: Rehearsals in Middlesbrough, featuring young people from various schools, including Archibald Primary School, 2015. Photo by Rob Freeman.

Sitting within one of the most economically deprived parts of Middlesbrough, many of Archibald’s pupils are eligible for free school meals, have Special Educational Needs (SEN) or English as an Additional Language (EAL). But the biggest problem affecting pupils’ learning was a lack of engagement, as Anita explains: “There’s was a disconnect between the curriculum and how invested the children were in the learning process.” 

Archibald joined the RSC’s Learning and Performance Network with the aim of adopting an ‘all school’ approach – in other words, making Shakespeare accessible to teachers as well as pupils. After three years they moved to being a Lead Associate School and now advocate strongly for RSC teaching techniques. 

Teachers at Archibald learned how to transfer methods usually found in a professional rehearsal room to the classroom, giving teachers new confidence and freedom to try radical approaches.

The children push the desks to one side and enjoy a multi-sensory experience, tapping into a child’s natural impulse to move about, play, role-play, invent rhymes and make-up songs. Children are encouraged to experience the plays through their bodies, as well as their brains, which lays down an emotional and cognitive ‘blue print’ that the children can then call upon to help with their reading and writing. 

Emma, Reception teacher (four to five year olds), used this practical approach to prepare her pupils to be part of a whole school performance of The Tempest. The class was asked to immerse themselves into the atmosphere of the island and the ensuing storm. By asking the children to close their eyes and to describe the storm and what it might feel like to be on the ship, with wizards, magic and potions, the characters and story came to life for these very young children. When it came to the day of the performance children in the class stood confidently, speaking aloud the words of the mariners, “All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!”.

The RSC approach continues to be a source of inspiration and enrichment for pupil learning. “Children often struggle because they don’t have authentic experiences...they haven’t got the insight, the language or speech, so when they are asked to write creatively, for example, they have very little to draw upon”, explains Year 4 teacher Lisa. The new teaching methods have liberated children’s vocabulary and given them new motivation for reading and writing.

Head Teacher Anita advocates that every piece of writing now begins with the RSC-led approaches, and the work has inspired ‘In My Mind’s Eye’, a project targeting less able writers, SEN and EAL learners in lower pathway classes in Years 3, 4 and 5. It’s still in its early stages but the project has yielded highly promising results so far with children beginning to close the gap between their literacy attainment and that of their peers in middle and higher pathway classes. 

* KS2 SAT results in Middlesbrough average 68%. The National Average is 74%.

Middlesbrough’s Archibald Primary School has pioneered a new project to improve literacy for lower pathway children, inspired by the RSC.

When Headteacher Anita Jeffries was making her way around Archibald Primary School in Middlesbrough one Monday morning, she was accosted by an enthusiastic group of Year 5 pupils. “We’re going to have a battle…we’re in Scotland!”, they explained, as they rushed to the main hall. 

Pictured: Rehearsals in Middlesbrough, featuring young people from various schools, including Archibald Primary School, 2015. Photo by Rob Freeman.

The class was to spend the morning scrutinising Macbeth as part of Archibald’s 'In My Mind’s Eye' project, an initiative to improve literacy amongst its Key Stage 2 pupils. 'In My Mind’s Eye' has taken the RSC’s rehearsal room learning techniques as a vehicle to improve skills for less able writers in lower pathway classes, particularly those with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and English as an Additional Language (EAL). 

The project aims to transport children who struggle with reading and writing into the story and world of the play, exploring how Shakespeare’s characters feel, what they see, hear, touch and smell. By capturing a child’s imagination, their interest and curiosity are stimulated which, with teacher guidance, can release new vocabulary and create the need to write.

The children produce one piece of writing every two or three weeks, beginning with a session based on RSC rehearsal room approaches. This session develops a specific objective from the national curriculum, and the children go on to plan and edit their writing over the next fortnight. 

During that Monday morning Macbeth session, children listened to a vivid description of the bleak Scottish heathland and then prepared for battle, forming shapes and freeze-frames with their bodies. Later in the day, the pupils created ‘sentence cards’, using the actions from the battle to learn how to use conjunctives and fronted adverbials to form sentences.

The next morning, the class recapped on the previous day’s activities. With arms around each other’s shoulders, they trod the aftermath of the battlefield. What could they see? What could they hear? They class responded vividly: “dripping in blood”, “weeping, shouting”, “broken bones cracking”, “proud with swords in the air”, were some of the more gory responses. The class would later go on to write an account of the battle using full sentences – a scene that had been built in their ‘mind’s eye’ over two days.

Lisa, Year 4 classroom teacher, explains the impact that this approach has on her pupils: “RSC approaches work in enhancing children’s memory, giving them the experience that they wouldn’t otherwise have, to act out the scene and to actually become those characters You can see the difference in their writing; I don’t think I could get the children to produce this quality of writing without the Shakespeare work”.

Although still in its early stages, 'In My Mind’s Eye' continues to make progress within school. Children in lower ability groups are being given the opportunity to close the gap between their literacy attainment and that of their peers in middle and higher ability groups. As Jackie Blyth, Subject Lead for English, puts it, “Everyone involved in the project has seen each child flourish as a writer who cares about their intended audience.  They have made rapid progress and have a new found passion for writing.”

In Partnership with Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury

Teachers at King Ethelbert School, a few miles west of Margate, are on a mission to raise the aspirations of their coastal community.

In an area where social deprivation is the highest in Kent, and personal drive and ambitions are relatively low, they accept that Shakespeare is on the bottom of most people’s 'To Do' list.

Photo by Rob Freeman.

Yet the response from pupils when they began their journey on the RSC’s Learning and Performance Network was far more positive than they ever hoped: “It’s become clear that our students have an enthusiasm for experiencing Shakespeare and a general love of learning on a level that we did not at first anticipate”, says Head of English, Carol O’Shea.

The trick lay in introducing the RSC’s rehearsal room approaches throughout the school. Carol explains, “When we first introduce Shakespeare to a class of students, we hold back the knowledge of what play it is, or who it’s written by. We play games linked to themes, or simply put some popular quotations down on the floor and ask them to create still images to show what it is they already understand. By doing this, we have seen students buzz with excitement, ‘Miss? Is it Shakespeare? Are we doing Shakespeare?’, ‘Miss? What play is it? Oh... tell us what the play is!’ Some students, even those who have never completed homework before, go off home and try their best to discover what play it is from the activities we’ve done in class.”

Within the first few terms of working with the RSC, the majority of Key Stage 3 pupils (11-13) had explored Shakespeare’s language in a practical way and experienced live performances. Older students soon followed. The result is that “we encouraged our students to be curious thinkers. They can interpret the plays in their own way which makes them truly engaged with Shakespeare’s work and able to gain much higher results than before.”

Perhaps the pupils explain it best themselves:

"I like the active strategies that our teacher uses because we understand it all a lot more. Before when we did Macbeth we were told what was happening and not working it out for ourselves." Year 9 Student

"I have found the lessons this week very helpful because I find it easier to learn things when I’m active, not stuck at a desk doing book work." Year 9 Student

One Year 13 student burst into tears when told she would be studying Shakespeare, certain that she’d never be able to understand it. After three months of rehearsal room strategies and a trip to Stratford to see Love’s Labour’s Won, she said “I can’t wait to get home and watch the DVD version”, a student truly converted.

It’s been a learning experience for teachers too. One English teacher with ten years experience explains how, “I was always happiest when the students were sitting down and we discussed meaning of language and other things. When we began on our journey to make Shakespeare learning more active, I was probably the one who was most resistant as I lacked confidence. ‘I have now delivered a series of lessons using rehearsal room approaches and am quite happy allowing them to play about with a text and find out for themselves in parts. I have understood that it is not about acting and whether I am good or not... it is about understanding through activity and appreciating language in a different way”.

Shakespeare now features regularly across the King Ethelbert curriculum, becoming the inspiration of lessons from science to maths. The school’s remarkable progress was the focus of a BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast, when four Year 9 students became BBC School News Reporters for the day.

The legacy of the school’s work with the RSC and The Marlowe Theatre looks set to continue: Carol again, “These strategies have ignited a flame inside of us; because we are enjoying the teaching of Shakespeare, we become passionate about the work and that becomes infectious around the school.”

In partnership with The Grand Theatre, Blackpool

How 90 Key Stage 1 pupils came to perform The Tempest.

When teachers at Larkholme Primary School in Lancashire began their journey with Shakespeare it was with a little trepidation. “Initially the idea of teaching Shakespeare to primary school children was daunting. Where do we start? Isn’t it for secondary school children? Will they understand the language? How on earth do we do it”, recalls Catherine Watts.

Within a year of using the RSC’s rehearsal room approaches, any doubts had been laid to rest – not least because Catherine had just witnessed a group of 90 Key Stage 1 pupils successfully perform The Tempest for their parents.

This dramatic change can be explained by the new techniques introduced to Larkholme through their work with the RSC and The Grand Theatre, Blackpool. Catherine explains, “We did not set out with Act One Scene One but worked with sections of the text. It did not matter what ages the children were, they all worked with Shakespeare’s original language. We used drama and games to focus on the various scenes and the children soon became engaged and passionate as they were transported into Shakespeare’s world of court scenes, forests and islands. We took the children physically to the text through our rehearsal room approaches and created a child-led approach where they improvised and role-played. The children led the direction of the drama themselves.”

Photo by Rob Freeman.

Catherine explained how the five-, six- and seven-year olds explored The Tempest. “We started with a word carpet whereby the children had to describe an island using a descriptive phrase per piece of A4 paper. Within this pool of paper we added phrases that Shakespeare had written, such as ‘cloud capped towers’, ‘brine pits’, ‘midnight mushrooms’, ‘clustering filberts’ and ‘the murkiest den’. Through this game the children soon got used to hearing and using Shakespeare’s language. They loved shouting, “Hag seed, abhorred slave! Hence!” 

“The children created an island using collage materials and discussed what their journeys to the island might have looked and felt like, which greatly improved their spoken language and in turn written language. We also brought Shakespeare into other lessons, such as making Prospero’s potions in maths, and incorporating actions from the play to make games in PE. These practical methods engaged the children and were a great way of learning their lines for the play that they performed in front of their parents and the whole school.”

Older pupils enjoyed similar practical sessions in the classroom as well as trips to The Grand Theatre in Blackpool to see live performances. “Most of our pupils had never been to the theatre and they were captivated. During the performance whisperings could be heard, “I said that line in class!” “I know him Miss, it’s Malvolio.” One child was overhead constantly finishing off lines under her breath. The children were not baffled by the language but instead were extremely comfortable with it as they had heard it and worked with it inside the classroom. Acting it out had enhanced their understanding."

So after the success of Larkholme’s production of The Tempest, what’s next? Catherine summarises, “The great thing about this work is that we can show what the children can achieve when they are given the right level of challenge. Expectations are now high and we are looking ahead to develop the project. Most of all, we need to keep Shakespeare fun!”.

In partnership with Hall for Cornwall

How teachers and pupils in Cornwall have responded to being an RSC hub school.

After only one year as an RSC hub school, Launceston College has introduced hundreds of Cornish school pupils to Shakespeare, and discovered that teaching staff have benefitted just as much as students.

The ancient town of Launceston, Cornwall, is home to Launceston College Academy, a comprehensive school of around 1,400 students. Whilst in many ways a pleasant place to live, the town features highly in social and economic deprivation measures; employment in the area is broadly low-skilled, low-paid and seasonal, and teachers bemoan a lack of cultural aspiration in its pupils.

As an LPN hub-school working in partnership with Hall for Cornwall in Truro, teachers from Launceston and their network of cluster secondary and primary schools experienced INSET days with RSC practitioners, and adopted a range of rehearsal room techniques into their teaching.

Within 12 months, over 500 primary school students had attended an RSC live screening, 200 saw live performances of Shakespeare and most took part in workshops where they experienced Shakespeare for the first time.

Amongst older pupils, Key Stage 3 curriculums were redesigned to include a full unit of Shakespeare - incorporating RSC rehearsal room approaches - and 60 Key Stage 4 pupils enjoyed a trip to Stratford to see a live production of Love’s Labour’s Won (Much Ado About Nothing) in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Outside of the English and Drama departments, History and RE teachers were trained in RSC rehearsal room approaches and Shakespeare even found his way into the teaching of PE.

The project has impacted upon pupils’ learning and attainment, but the surprise result for staff is that the RSC’s techniques have impacted upon their wider approach to teaching practice. 

One English teacher explains, “My mid/low ability Year 8 class were using tableaux to present different scenes from Othello. One group of normally-reluctant boys were given the theme of ‘love’ to discuss. After much initial giggling, one boy suggested, ‘there’s more than one type of love, isn’t there?’ and the group made a powerful tableau of lads crowding around a television set cheering on a football team...This led to a very impressive piece of analytical writing.”

Another teacher describes, “I was meeting my new class for the year for the first time and engaged them straight away with RSC activities. Within minutes, an insecure, uncertain and edgy new group were laughing, making eye contact, and working with remarkable skill as a team. I will never again start my year with a list of rules and expectations and handing out exercise books!”

How one enterprising primary school uses Shakespeare to engage parents with their children’s education.

Lings Primary School in Northampton has placed Shakespeare at the heart of an initiative to engage parents with the everyday life of the school. It’s perhaps not the obvious first choice for this Northampton-based primary: when Head Teacher Leigh Wolmarans first posted that pupils were to explore the work of Shakespeare alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company, some parents questioned its significance for their children. But Leigh was determined: “The scariest thing for our parents is to step over the line at the school gates because of the negative experiences that they had at school. I appealed to their trust, urging them to watch what we do and see if their children respond differently.”

Over the coming weeks, parents were encouraged into school to watch Shakespeare assemblies and attended open morning sessions to observe lessons featuring RSC-led approaches. Some parents started to report that their children had come home quoting Shakespeare, with a new-found excitement about their work in school. As momentum grew, Leigh and the staff at Lings realised that the best ambassadors for Shakespeare were the children themselves, and with them lay the potential for even deeper parental engagement.

Pictured: Over 50 schools performed their versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Playmaking Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, 2016. Photo by Lucy Barriball.

In 2016 some 60 parents and children from Reception to Year 6 attended an after-school workshop based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, using RSC-led rehearsal room techniques. The session was a gamble – some parents had English as an additional language, some had never stepped foot into the school and some were literally dragged there by their children. Staff were keen to ease any parental anxiety about taking part and carefully structured the session so that parents worked, read and talked about the play with their child. At the end of the session parents described their experience as "just brilliant", and some used Facebook to say how much they had enjoyed the evening. Leigh recalls that “It was a really lovely moment of watching our parents engage with their children through Shakespeare.”

In September 2016, Lings moved on to study The Tempest. Teachers took part in RSC-led CPD sessions in school and in Stratford, and developed a plan that connected the teaching to every part of the curriculum, including maths, reading, writing, geography, history, dance, art and music. Six months later, Lings hosted two performances by the RSC of an edited version of the play especially developed for 8 to 13 year olds. Tickets sold out to the local community within five days of release.

The success of these performances demonstrated the cultural shift that has taken place at Lings in a relatively short timeframe. Parents who were hesitant about stepping over the line at the school gate are now enthused, and the expectation in the near future is to take parents to Stratford to watch a live production by the Royal Shakespeare Company. As Leigh reminds us, “Parents need to be convinced about the value and relevance of what happens in the classroom. But in the end it wasn’t us that changed attitudes to Shakespeare with our parents, the biggest contributors have been our children”. 

How one Head Teacher shifted from being unconvinced about teaching Shakespeare to primary school children to being a Lead Associate of the RSC.

When Head Teacher Leigh Wolmarans took over Lings Primary School in Northampton, he knew that he had a distinct set of challenges on his hands. Having got through five Head Teachers in five years, the school was in Special Measures. On top of this, the school is located in an area of high social deprivation with 60% of pupils in receipt of free school meals and around one third of pupils having a level of involvement with social services.

On arrival at Lings Leigh discovered a significant gap in the curriculum, with no provision for music, dance or drama. Having experienced a workshop with the RSC back in 2013, Leigh knew of the potential for using Shakespeare as a means of improving aspiration and attainment in school, but had been keeping the idea on the back-burner until the right opportunity arose.

Leigh explains, “Before my encounter with the RSC in 2013, I was unconvinced about the relevance of teaching Shakespeare to very young children. But after a day in the rehearsal room with RSC practitioners and having seen the evening performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor I felt immersed and engaged…it was like a world had opened up to me. Coming to Lings was the catalyst I needed to try out the RSC techniques and so we made a decision to ‘open up’ Shakespeare to the whole of the school. I believed it would motivate pupils, raise their self-esteem and improve performance.”

One asset in Leigh’s favour was the quality of teaching staff, whom he describes as “an incredible group of talented individuals”. Leigh knew that before he could engage his pupils in Shakespeare, he had to first invest in raising the confidence and skills of his staff, for many of whom Shakespeare was at best a distant memory. He set up a number of INSET days and paid for all 36 members of staff to see a performance of Love’s Labour’s Won in Stratford. The reaction from teachers was emphatic: “we’ve got to bring this into class”. Each teacher took the lead in planning and delivering a scheme of work for their class based on a chosen Shakespeare play. 

Pictured: Teachers at the Learning and Performance Network, 2017. Photo by Rob Freeman.

Now, four years later, Shakespeare’s work and RSC approaches have become embedded in “the fabric of our children, our parents and our building”. Across the school’s curriculum the stories, locations, characters and language of Shakespeare are a basis for the teaching of reading, writing, maths, geography, technology, art, music, drama and dance.   

In 2016 Lings became an RSC Lead Associate School, supporting 12 other Northampton schools and 150 teachers in bringing the work of Shakespeare into classrooms in a meaningful way. Leigh is convinced of the significance of Shakespeare’s work and the effectiveness of applying RSC approaches in classrooms to raise pupil attainment: “We know that it’s never going to go away, or become that shiny thing on the Head’s bookcase that gathers dust. It’s just too potent”.

Taking Shakespeare to Y9 and Y10 pupils in Middlesbrough.

Year 9 and 10 pupils from Macmillan Academy in Middlesbrough have found new confidence in their drama studies as a result of working with the RSC.

The 13 to 15 year olds have brought rehearsal room approaches into their learning, which in the words of one Year 10 student “allows Shakespeare to be tackled from a different perspective”.

Pictured: Macmillan Academy at the Regional Schools Celebration, 2015. Photo by Rob Freeman.

Desks are pushed to one side as the pupils experiment with and interpret the text in their own way. The new techniques have helped to build a ‘comfort zone of understanding’ when looking at Shakespeare’s language - a Year 9 student explains that “when it’s fun you learn more”, and another student describes these classes as a welcome relief from the pressures of study: “I’m already stressed; watching and doing drama makes me happy”.

Students from Macmillan have explored and then performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry IV, Henry V and The Tempest, an experience that has enabled them to work together as a ‘company’, despite being in different year groups. 

Teachers at Macmillan describe the rise in their students’ confidence as "inspiring", and speak of a general feeling of excitement in passing on the rewards of studying Shakespeare to a new generation. As drama teacher Lynsey puts in, "Working with the RSC has opened new avenues for our students. They have performed on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, something that will stay with them forever!”

In partnership with The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford

Teachers from Bradford’s Samuel Lister Academy describe their journey within the RSC’s Learning and Performance Network.

Most Year 7 students beginning their studies at the Samuel Lister Academy have had no contact at all with the works of Shakespeare. That’s probably not so unusual – and when you bear in mind that the vast majority of Samuel Lister students are from minority ethnic backgrounds and well over 50% of students are entitled to free school meals, it’s unsurprising that this icon of high British culture is usually met with apprehension.

Set in the market town of Bingley, close to Bradford, West Yorkshire, the Samuel Lister Academy joined the RSC’s Learning and Performance Network in 2014, where they were matched with partner theatre The Alhambra. The school’s aim was to broaden the horizons of its pupils. Lizzie Hutchinson explains that “we believed that a partnership with the RSC and Bradford’s Alhambra Theatre would open up new opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be available to them”.

Teachers spent three weekends in Stratford discovering RSC rehearsal room approaches and developing their skills as leaders. When they brought their new skills back to the classroom, the impact was immediate, says Lizzie. “The active rehearsal room approaches to Shakespeare’s text transformed students’ attitudes to Shakespeare. Students who once perceived his plays as boring and difficult now think of them as interesting, relevant and even fun!”

It’s not all been plain sailing of course. When Year 8 and 9 students were scheduled to see an RSC broadcast of The Two Gentlemen of Verona a number of parents phoned the school to say they didn’t want their children to take part, and pre-screening workshops were greeted with a great deal of moaning. But once the desks were pushed aside and the class ‘ringleaders’ were engaged, the group came on board. “In the end, the students were more positive and enthusiastic than we dared hope”, Lizzie recalls.

Let’s move the desks and get to work! Pupils at Samuel Lister Academy prepare for their Shakespeare lesson. Photo: Lucy Barriball.

As well as spreading the new teaching techniques through Samuel Lister’s English department, lead teachers were challenged to introduce rehearsal room approaches to the wider school and to other schools in the Bingley area. “We hosted two INSET days at the Alhambra Theatre and invited the entire English and drama departments at Samuel Lister, plus other local schools and a nearby FE college. 33 people attended including four students who would go on to be Shakespeare Student Ambassadors. The students established very quickly that the rehearsal-based classroom is an exciting, rigorous and inclusive place to learn. All the teachers in the room found these four students very inspiring and, we suspect, would have been more reluctant to take part in activities without their presence.”

The changes in pupil attitudes has been noted at a senior level in the school, which gave teachers confidence in planning the second year of their time with the Learning and Performance Network.

A highlight of was when 30 Samuel Lister students joined a professional RSC class to perform in A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation at the Alhambra Theatre in April 2016. Lizzie explains how “It was an incredible experience for those students lucky enough to be selected but more than that, it was something the whole of the school community could take pride in. The RSC coming to Bradford, and our students performing with them on a professional stage, was a terrific opportunity to reinforce the idea that Shakespeare is not something alien and strange, but belongs to them, their school, their city and their community. Looking forward, we are very excited about all that we can go on to achieve together."

In partnership with New Vic Theatre

A Staffordshire primary school has seen a dramatic rise in writing standards since being part of the RSC’s Learning Partnership Network.

When Springhead Primary School in Stoke-on-Trent joined the Learning and Performance Network in 2014, in partnership with the New Vic Theatre, one of their goals was to introduce rehearsal room techniques across the curriculum in order to improve pupils’ writing skills.

A smaller-than-average school with 188 pupils aged 3 to 11 years, Springhead is situated in an area that could be described as socially and economically deprived.

Headteacher Brian Anderson explains that his pupils “have both a limited vocabulary and range of reading. They have the mechanics of reading and writing but struggle to develop the higher levels - the ability to put language together is hard to get unless children are swamped with good literature.”

After just 18 months on the scheme, Brian gave a speech at London’s Barbican Centre when he said that “the learning partnership [with the RSC and New Vic Theatre, Stoke] has had a greater impact on the learning of our children than any other professional development my staff have had over the 12 years that I have been a headteacher…Our data shows a sharp increase in writing levels, especially for low achievers. The progress across the school has been outstanding”. 

The RSC’s rehearsal room approaches have brought Shakespeare to the classroom in brand new ways, with pupils encouraged to engage emotionally, intellectually and physically in their learning. Children have studied The Tempest and King Lear, with workshops, live streaming and sharing days with the New Vic Theatre and a ‘cluster’ of other local schools.

Photo by Rob Freeman.

Springhead’s teachers discovered that the children really enjoyed playing with the language in the plays, in particular lower ability children – “the idea that no-one really knows the answer, and that their idea might be right, is a great leveller”.

The RSC’s techniques have created a burst of creativity in Springhead’s pupils. Brian proudly uses the example of a piece of writing by a seven year-old boy, who created this passage after using the rehearsal room approaches to explore the shipwreck scene in The Tempest...

My knees were shaking out of control. The waves got bigger and bigger as the storm started pounding. As I was pulling the top mast the waves echoed in my ears. I shouted “Down with the top mast, lower, lower!” But it was snapped sharply by the massive lightning strike and smashed. Everyone screamed. The waves smashed against the boat. The ship started rocking like a coat hanger. The ocean was bubbling and fierce. “Mercy on us! We split we split!” The sailors cried out with fear as the boat sank.

Springhead’s teachers explain that the children‘s confidence has grown with speaking, listening and writing, from a below average starting point. “There’s a display in the corridor of the nursery children; you might not be able to tell exactly what they’ve written, but they know, and they’ve done it excitedly and willingly. The progress of the children has been massive.”

As a result of the project, it’s now 'a cool thing' to be involved with Shakespeare. “My class is desperate to go to Stratford. They all want to be doing something with Shakespeare, something with the RSC - it’s prestigious.”

Springhead see their work with the RSC and the New Vic Theatre as an ongoing future investment, and a great way of working with other schools in their area. Brian concludes, “All of the schools [in our cluster] rose to it. It made me realise we’re missing an opportunity because in sport we compete against each other but this is working together.”

In partnership with New Vic Theatre

With Shakespeare at its core, why three headteachers and their staff advocate replacing one type of classroom practice with another.

In 2013 a group of schools in North Staffordshire began on a journey with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle under Lyme to bring Shakespeare’s work into the lives of the youngest of school children.

At the programme’s core was the ambition to transform children’s and young people’s first encounters with Shakespeare, making it vivid, accessible and enjoyable. 

Today, the RSC Associate Schools Programme continues to flourish. The programme works with a growing number of schools and regional theatre partners from across the country to bring the work of Shakespeare to life.

In this study headteachers and teachers from three North Staffordshire schools, Springhead Primary, the lead school, Dove Bank Primary and Star Academy, talk about the effect of the programme on classroom practice and the resulting impact on the language and literacy development of pupils.

A key element of the programme is a commitment to the continuing professional development and learning of teachers. Each lead associate school teacher has a responsibility to lead practice with other teaching staff at their school and in partner schools.

Replacing One Type of Classroom Practice with Another 

At first exploring and learning to use rehearsal room approaches in the classroom felt very different, taking some teachers out of their comfort zone. Through reflecting on their practice and with the ongoing support of the RSC and the New Vic theatre, teachers settled into using the approaches in school. By the end of the second term teachers recognised the value of replacing one type of classroom practice with another.

“Pupils are encouraged to consider different responses to the text. The work has impacted on children’s reading and writing. It frees children to give far more explanation, it makes them braver, more resilient and more confident”. Jan, Year 6 Classroom Teacher, Literacy Lead, Springhead Primary

Kate, a Year 5 classroom teacher at Springhead found benefit in using the approaches to change the order of her classroom practice. By taking children out of the classroom into a different space, children find it easier to use their whole body to instinctively react to show ‘what is royalty’ before they verbalise or write an answer. Children are encouraged to “bring themselves and to feed their own thoughts into a lesson” says Kate. With no pre-determined right or wrong answers, children have become more self-assured to voice an opinion in class.

“Some children almost pigeonhole themselves into believing that they are not a good writer or a good reader, that is broken down through this work”. Kate, Year 5 Classroom Teacher, Springhead Primary

At Dove Bank Primary two classroom teachers, Alicia Year 4 and Greer Year 3, have noticed how year on year the quality of pupil writing has improved.  Both teachers attribute  the improvement in pupil writing to the development of their practice in using RSC rehearsal room approaches in the classroom.

“As teachers we have changed our attitude towards Shakespeare’s language. When children find language that they don’t understand, they’ve learnt that’s okay. Like us, find out the context, look it up, what do you think it might mean – our children have become far more active and confident in tackling Shakespeare’s language”. Alicia, Year 4 Classroom Teacher, Dove Bank Primary

Teachers at the school make Shakespeare lessons “experiential”, to build understanding about the play and empathy with its characters that leads a child to want to write. Pupils are encouraged to work with teachers to shape the direction of their writing: “if you were that character, if you were in that experience, what type of writing could you do?”, and in response “we could write a diary or a newspaper story” (Year 4 pupil).

Greer felt that the programme provides teachers with a toolkit, “a complete bank of creative and imaginative techniques that can be transferred and differentiated to any topic across the curriculum”. 

For the RSC Associate School’s programme to achieve the greatest impact possible on children’s learning, Headteachers at Springhead, Dove Bank and Star Academy advocate a whole school approach to the work.

Nicky Broomhall, Principal of Star Academy recalled how in celebration of the RSC Playmaking Festival in 2016 the school was transformed into the enchanted forest from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Children in Nursery looked at ‘who lives in the magical world of fairyland’. Pupils from Reception knocked on ‘fairy doors’, and called out, “Oberon, Titania, are you in there?”, then leaving gifts for the fairy king and queen. A trail of ‘fairy glitter ‘, sprinkled along school corridors brought gasps of wonder from children in Year 1.

While in Year 6 pupils explored ‘what does it mean to dream’. For children that do not always receive external enrichment, teachers creatively adapted RSC led approaches to develop a theme from the play that was appropriate for each year group. Nicky: “Jill Rezzano from the New Vic came and did some CPD with the early years’ team that was fantastic…Throughout the school every member of staff bought in to the experience”. 

In school and out the conversation continued. A parent had approached Nicky about an argument that had taken place between her two children, over the dinner table on the previous evening. The disagreement centred on Puck, who during the day had been up to mischief in the classroom. The two children, one from Reception and the other from Year 6 had quarrelled about whether Puck was a good or bad character.

“The RSC Associate Schools programme is very much at the epicentre of what we do and everything else evolves around it. I’ve seen a global change in our children. The immersion into drama has raised the confidence of our children. The writing skills of our Year 4 pupils has been transformed, the enrichment of their language and the way they piece it together, has led to them writing in much greater depth.” Nicky Broomhall, Principal, Star Academy

Asked what advice she would give to other schools who may be considering joining the RSC Associate Schools Programme, Eithna Ford, Headteacher at Dove Bank Primary said:
“make it whole school, commit to it, believe in it and it will transform”.

Jill Rezzano from the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Brian Anderson from Springhead Primary School have seen the enduring impact of their work with the RSC on pupil aspiration and attainment

In 2013 as a newly appointed Regional Theatre Partner for the RSC's Learning and Performance Network, Jill’s initial task was to identify and recruit a compatible lead school to work with in the programme. Jill was clear about the theatre’s expectation, 

“We wanted a school that would hold an appreciation of process. Of something that was new and different and that might need some exploration, not necessarily expecting an immediate outcome”.

Springhead Primary School presented the ideal candidate. Already working with the New Vic across several performance led projects, the school understood the benefit of using drama for learning. New Vic theatre practitioners were regular visitors to the school and similarly Springhead pupils to the theatre, allowing children to participate in and enjoy the spectacle of live theatre performance. For Jill, the opportunity of working more closely with Springhead as a lead school “felt like a very solid next step”. 

Approached by Jill, a trusted colleague, Brian considered the relevance and potential of becoming a lead school in the Shakespeare led programme. Convinced about the positive effect that short term drama led projects had made on pupil learning, Brian welcomed the prospect of working in long term partnership with the RSC and the New Vic.

Using RSC led approaches to connect mind and body to an original Shakespeare text, Brian looked to the work to improve pupil literacy attainment across the school.  For this purpose, Brian decided to nominate teachers from Nursery, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 as Lead Teachers onto the programme. 

Professional Development
Essential to how the programme is taken into schools is to equip Lead Teachers with core skills and strategies that build expertise and confidence in the teaching of Shakespeare. The skilful application of RSC led approaches advocating the engagement of head, eyes, hands, bodies and heart to explore and interpret the language and the world in which Shakespeare’s plays are set.  

In school, at the RSC and at the New Vic, Springhead Lead Teachers and Jill have consistently taken part in intensive RSC led CPD. Lead Teachers and Jill consider that they have benefitted significantly from the training. Capability and confidence has been built to bring Shakespeare’s work to life in the classroom. An enthusiasm has developed, with teachers and Jill looking forward to sessions where they share knowledge and learning with other schools in the North Staffordshire cluster. Travelling the same route into the programme, together learning new practice and discovering “the wonder of Shakespeare’s work”, Brian, has led to a much closer working relationship between schools and the New Vic theatre. Teachers and theatre practitioners have gained insight and an appreciation of the others’ expertise, sharing a mutual aim to support schools in their literacy and performance ambitions. Jill, 

 “I work with a very skilled set of teachers in North Staffordshire. They become your colleagues, what you each bring to it is distinctive, but there is real a common understanding of what it is you want to achieve in that room”.

An experienced theatre practitioner herself, Jill has found that involvement in the RSC Associate Schools Programme has also led to an evolution in her own theatre practice. No longer under pressure to deliver specific learning outcomes by the end of a short-term project, Jill has shifted how she explores the language and performance of Shakespeare with schools. Able to relax into her own practice, Jill feels that a sense of collaboration has emerged that allows pupils to draw on their own conclusions and understanding of the work. “They now have the time invested in it to think about things more deeply. It’s much more about how you draw out their explorations and insights”, Jill. 

A breadth and depth of experience for pupils
Jill and her fellow theatre practitioners have enjoyed seeing cohorts of schools develop and pupils’ confidence levels grow. . Pupils have gained a breadth and depth of experience. Visits to the New Vic, the RSC and watching live Shakespeare performance in school has extended pupils’ interest beyond that of the plays’ storylines. In lively conversation, pupils describe and examine different aspects of a play. The play’s production, lighting, and characters, going on to compare one Shakespeare play with another Shakespeare play.  Critical thinking skills that help pupils contextualise a Shakespeare play have been developed, something that would not be possible from experiencing a one-off drama led workshop or theatre performance. Jill says, “Sometimes pupils feel like collaborators more than learners. They understand what is going to be happening in that learning, they are confident and ready, which is what you want.”

Improvements in pupil attainment 
During the past four years Brian has been witness to a steady and consistent improvement in pupil literacy attainment at Springhead Primary. Brian attributes this improvement to the school’s involvement in the Associate Schools Programme. In Brian’s opinion the influence of the programme has reached beyond the school’s original expectation.  The power and beauty of Shakespeare’s stories and language, the universal appeal of RSC led approaches aligned with skilful teaching practice have combined to transform pupils’ attitudes and confidence to learning. Brian believes,  

“When children are actively engaged in their learning it has a long-term impact on their attitude and attainment in school. RSC led approaches should be an essential part of the curriculum because it embeds learning”

For Springhead Primary School and the New Vic Theatre continuation in the Associate Schools programme is a given. The work is part of the school’s culture and an expectation of teachers and of every pupil. Brian and Jill share an equality of practice, commitment and of vision. The bond between school and theatre which has led to the North Staffordshire cluster of schools being recognised as a community of best practice in the teaching, learning and performance of Shakespeare’s work.  

“The sharing event held at the New Vic Theatre last year that featured A Midsummer Night’s Dream was something special. We brought all nine schools into the theatre, for a whole day, rehearsing in the morning and a performance in the afternoon. Just seeing all those children and staff working together as one school, no barriers, no differences was incredible”. Brian Anderson, Headteacher, Springhead Primary School