The major benefit of our residencies with schools is the ability to return to work with the same students and teachers again and again. The advantages of this ongoing relationship cannot be understated. As the children get to know us, we get to know them. Students gain a better service as the residency continues and, as their confidence improves and we learn more about their skills, we can push them further and further. The same is true with the staff and the sessions improve with every visit.
As a residency continues, it also becomes easier for the staff to integrate the content into their classroom study. We are lucky to work with schools where the teachers embrace our work with open arms and use their children’s enthusiasm for Shakespeare to influence their work in English lessons.
We have been working with Guilford Grove Primary School for 3 years now – exploring a different play with different year group, each term. This Spring, Year 6 have been doing several pieces of writing, inspired by our sessions on Hamlet. The beginnings of this is a project is called #Hamlet. The children looked at what they thought were the 10 most important events in the play and then summarised them to create their own hashtags. The children will then add details to these ideas, to provide detailed plans for further writing.
We were so impressed by the children’s work that we had to share it with you. Over the next couple of days, we’ll release the children’s hashtags, which simplify the story of Hamlet into 10 precise – and often hilarious – hashtags. Watch our Social Media for the latest, as each Year 6 class condense over 30,000 of Shakespeare’s words into just 10 tweets!
If you’d like more information on our work within schools, please visit the Outreach pages of our website.
