PROJECT
Coram Shakespeare Schools Theatre Festival
PURPOSE
To improve children's skills and wellbeing through performing Shakespeare
FUNDING
Schools pay roughly half the cost, which is about £3,000 per class, with fundraising and donations making up the rest
BACKGROUND
The Shakespeare Schools Theatre Festival was launched 25 years ago by Chris Grace, producer of the BBC television series Shakespeare: The Animated Tales, which featured 12 half-hour versions of Shakespeare plays. “He took the scripts to eight schools and gave the challenge of presenting them to young people,” explains Mike Tucker, director of Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation. “There weren't many accessible Shakespeare programmes out there at that time.”
It is now the world's largest youth drama festival with 350 primary and secondary schools across the UK participating last year. The Shakespeare Schools Foundation, which runs the festival, joined the Coram group of charities in 2020.
Around half the schools that took part in the festival last year had high numbers of children eligible for free school meals, were special schools or located in deprived areas.
ACTION
The programme is for children aged eight to 16. Over eight months, a class of up to 35 pupils stages a 30-minute version of a Shakespeare play as part of the school curriculum or an after-school club. Teachers receive support throughout this process from a Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation programme co-ordinator and can access resources such as lesson plans, film clips and how-to guides via an online account.
“We have tools to help schools choose their play so young people can be involved,” says Tucker. “Really early on they start to think about what story they want to tell and how they're going to make connections between that story and the challenges in their lives.” For example, a teacher may divide the class into groups to pitch ideas about how different plays could be adapted to suit the cast.
Around four months in, rehearsals begin. To start this process the “teacher-director” takes part in a day-long workshop led by a Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation practitioner – a trained actor or director affiliated with theatres such as Shakespeare's Globe in London. As well as being introduced to how to stage and put on a Shakespeare play, teachers are encouraged to create the right culture, seeing the young people as joint storytellers and autonomous problem solvers.
“Teachers don't need qualifications to run this,” says Tucker. “There aren't as many drama teachers around as there used to be and we have also seen a huge increase in the number of primary schools taking part in the programme. The idea is this is a really good introduction to Shakespeare for children at a young age, when there are not those misconceptions about who Shakespeare is for.”
The foundation has devised a Big Question resource to help tackle sensitive issues within a script. For example, children working on a version of Romeo and Juliet are encouraged to consider the question: Is violence ever the answer? There are also techniques for unpicking antiquated language and helping pupils translate texts into their own words. Midway through the process, the entire cast will also spend half a day with foundation practitioner, usually from the local community, rehearsing challenging scenes or other areas such as stagecraft.
The foundation also offers teachers an extra one-day inclusive practice workshop, in person and online, led by a practitioner from an inclusive theatre company. This focuses on how to use sensory techniques such as music or movement to help make the process of learning Shakespeare easier for those with social and emotional difficulties, autism or learning disabilities.
The process culminates in the performance day: a technical and dress rehearsal, followed by a performance on stage with three other schools in front of the local community.
“We're a capacity-building organisation at heart – giving teachers the tools and confidence to take risks and work in creative ways and to see this will pay off,” says Tucker.
He says teachers’ perceptions of “problem” children change from taking part in the festival while children gain the confidence to speak up in class and forge strong friendships. It can also be transformative for the families of those involved with 70% never having been to the theatre before.
“The thing that brings me most joy is standing in the foyer after the performance is finished because parents who have witnessed their young people on the stage doing Shakespeare have raised expectations of their children,” says Tucker. “I wish I could bottle that.”
The foundation also works with young people outside mainstream education, including those in pupil referral units. Last year, a group of 10 children from a virtual school in Leicester performed a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Magdalen College, Oxford.
This April, the foundation also began trialling a scheme for adopted children. A part-narrated version of Hamlet was performed at Coram's base in London after two days of preparation – a model the foundation hopes to roll out to other adoption services.
OUTCOME
Teachers say participating in the festival has a positive impact on all aspects of children's education with improvements in literacy, school attendance, behaviour, motivation and engagement with the core curriculum.
Teachers assess themselves and the children against key skills such as creativity, teamwork and resilience at the start and end of the process. These are identified as key employability skills by the Skills Builder Partnership and all exercises are mapped to its Skills Builder Framework.
A survey of 149 teachers who took part in the programme in 2023/24 found 87% said their practice has improved as a result while 80% reported their students’ academic attainment improved. Some 97% said they had a stronger relationship with their students. They also saw improvements in pupils’ confidence, ambition and working together as a team with 100% of teachers saying their pupils had pride in themselves following the festival.
An evaluation by Newcastle University, which involved focus groups with children and teachers, found taking part in the festival improved children's wellbeing in areas such as improved confidence and self-esteem, resilience and risk-taking.
WHAT'S NEXT?
The foundation is keen to increase the number of targeted programmes for young people facing “structural disadvantage” such as those in care and to provide more continuing professional development for teachers using festival resources and tools. The aim is to reach 25,000 young people in 25 months to mark the festival's 25th anniversary.
EXPERIENCE: WONDER AND EXCITEMENT OF PERFORMANCE BUILDS SCHOOL'S SPIRIT
Gail Pascoe is a teacher at Knockevin Special School in Northern Ireland, which has been involved in the festival for about 10 years.
“For children with complex needs at our school, the festival is a thrilling sensory experience,” she says. “They love the lights, the music, the applause from the audience. It gives them a way to connect with the world. They absolutely know that the applause is for them.”
Some pupils have life-limiting conditions. “We want to give them every drop of joy that life can bring,” says Pascoe. “The fact they are up on a professional stage performing Shakespeare is incredible. You see their faces light up. It's something most parents would never have dreamed possible and an incredibly precious experience for everyone.”
Last year, Mary, aged 12, who is non-verbal, took on the role of co-narrator with Pascoe. “Every time I came on stage, she came on with me and held my hand,” says Pascoe. “She was gazing at the lights and looking out across the rows of faces in the audience. She was very still and I could tell she was absolutely taking it all in. The expression on her face was one of sheer wonder.”
Pascoe says the programme helps build friendships and a sense of community spirit across the school and has a huge impact on individual children such as one 17-year-old boy with autism who was cast in the central role of Prospero in The Tempest.
“He had never wanted to go on stage before because he was afraid of making a mistake and being ridiculed,” says Pascoe. “Through the rehearsal process, he grew in resilience. If he made a mistake he learnt to say ‘silly me’ and carry on.
“We also talked about how butterflies are a good and normal thing and that you can use the energy to perform. The festival gave him a safe space to face his fears.”
