Once you have completed the Intermediate Certificate course, the highest tier of our Certificate in Teaching Shakespeare is the ultimate opportunity to extend your practice.

Upcoming Course Dates

Our Advanced Certificate in Teaching Shakespeare course spans two academic years and is open to anyone who has attained our Intermediate Certificate. Our next course will begin in academic year 2026/27 and will run into academic year 2027/28. Full details will be announced in early 2026. To register your interest in this course in the meantime, please email: teachers.courses@rsc.org.uk

COST

• £550 UK state school teachers
• £750 UK independent school teachers
• £300 ECTs (Early Career Teachers)*

If you do not see yourself represented in the categories above please see our FAQs page or contact teachers.courses@rsc.org.uk  

ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility for our Advanced Certificate course comes upon completion of one of our Intermediate Certificate courses. Under exceptional circumstances, teachers who have worked with the RSC for several years, such as through our Associate Schools programme or as one of our international partners, may be eligible to start at the Advanced level of our Certificate programme.

Questions about eligibility? Please get in touch at: teachers.courses@rsc.org.uk

Professional Outcomes

In addition to supporting research-informed and evidence-based professional development through an enjoyable and interactive day at the RSC exploring Shakespeare, teachers on our Certificate courses work towards specific professional outcomes.

Completing our Advanced Certificate in Teaching Shakespeare course will support you to develop the knowledge, confidence and skills to:

1. design and facilitate lessons which ensure the equitable inclusion of all your students.
2. sequence innovative teaching activities which meet your students’ objectives by scaffolding the necessary learning.
3. undertake sustained practice-informed research to evaluate the impact of rehearsal room approaches and pedagogy on student learning, supporting your development as a reflective, evidence-informed teacher/practitioner.
4. utilise a deepened knowledge and understanding of rehearsal room pedagogy to enable your students to respond to Shakespeare’s plays through the perspectives of actors, directors, designers and other theatre artists.
5. use techniques to deepen learning in your classroom by empowering your students to make informed interpretative choices in their reading, speaking, written analysis and performance of Shakespeare’s texts.
6. engage with constructive feedback, reflection and dialogic approaches to inform your future planning and delivery of rehearsal room approaches and to enable your students to reflect constructively on their own and/or their peers’ written, verbal and performed responses.

Course Content

• Deepening and widening expertise: further develop your understanding and use of rehearsal room approaches and the underpinning pedagogy.
• Teacher as researcher: carry out a piece of research into the effects of rehearsal room approaches within your teaching of Shakespeare with support from the RSC.
• Research-informed reflective practice: solidify your position as a reflective educator by engaging in debates and conversations around evidence that supports the use rehearsal room approaches to teach Shakespeare.
• Teacher as artist: engage with a series of workshops to explore learning about Shakespeare from the perspectives of actors, directors, designers and other creatives at the RSC to further enhance your teaching skillset.
• Teaching with confidence: reflect on your achievements and consolidate the enhanced level of practice achieved through our Certificate courses. 
• Specific teaching environments: focus with greater precision on the needs and expectations of individual students in your Shakespeare classroom by taking part in an observed workshop, reflecting on our pedagogies in action.
• Transferable skills: further enhance your ability to transfer approaches to different plays and contexts from Shakespeare to contemporary literature and drama.

Course STRUCTURE

Research Phase

Undertake a piece of research in your school environment over the course of  8-9 months into the effects of using the RSC's rehearsal room approaches and pedagogies in your specific teaching and learning context.

• Launch event: an online seminar focusing on how to undertake a piece of action research.
• Submission of research questions: formulate your line of enquiry and submit your research project for approval to the RSC.
• Confirmation of research: receive confirmation to begin your research or receive support to restructure your project from RSC practitioners.
• Action research project: undertake your research project in your school with support from RSC tutors. There will also be another group seminar half-way through the research phase to support all participants research.
• Action research report: write up your findings into a 2,500 word report, analysing and evaluating your implementation of rehearsal room approaches.
• Report submission: submit your report to the RSC for review.
• Feedback: receive specific feedback from RSC tutors and practitioners on your research before moving on to the in person phase of this course.

Stratford Phase

Four days of in person CPD at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon.

QUESTIONS?

Please visit our dedicated FAQs page.

If you cannot find the answer you're looking for, please get in touch: teachers.courses@rsc.org.uk