Children and young people

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is expanding its partnership scheme with schools across England to five new locations.

It will start working with pupils in Skegness, Coventry, Peterborough, Corby and Hartlepool to help them become more familiar with Shakespeare's work.

The RSC's Associate Schools Programme currently includes 26 areas of structural disadvantage across England, where opportunity in culture and art is low and where educational attainment and employment opportunities lag behind the national average.

The programme reaches 135,000 children and young people each year, helping them to build language skills by engaging with the richness of the Bard’s plays. It also aims to show them the range of job opportunities possible in the theatre sector.

The RSC aims to accelerate language acquisition, raise aspiration and widen creativity and critical thinking. 

A study is under way to assess the programme’s overall impact but teachers have reported that “children who weren't previously meeting expected standards now consistently are – because of how they're taught Shakespeare”, Jacqui O'Hanlon, the RSC's director of learning and national partnership, told the BBC.

RSC actors perform in the schools, as well as at local theatres involved in the programme, and the company trains teachers at participating schools in techniques used by actors and directors in rehearsals.

They guide children in acting, exploring characters and their language choices, and analysing the words to find their meanings.

“The language development of a child by age five is still the greatest predictor of whether that child can escape poverty in later life,” O'Hanlon said.

Children “get really curious about the possibilities of the meaning of particular words, rather than finding them scary or confusing”, she added.

“Time and again it's the children who have struggled with reading and writing who are absolutely captivated by these plays.”

It is precisely the difficulty of Shakespeare's language that can be life-changing, she said.

“It's all about giving the children the tools to decode things. They get a feeling of power. It's like unlocking a secret code. So they feel like they can do anything.”
 

Goldsmiths, University of London, will be Artsmark Award’s new national delivery partner from the start of the 2023-24 academic year.

Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools and education settings in England.

Accredited by Arts Council England, the award is available across three tiers - silver, gold and platinum - to schools in England.

Schools can apply for Artsmark certification by registering online, attending development training and submitting a statement of commitment and impact, with most schools taking up to two years to complete the process.

Artsmark’s website says schools with the accreditation can unlock a number of benefits, including access to professional support, advice and resources to strengthen arts provision, opportunities to train staff and support to help broaden the school’s creative curriculum.

As the new national delivery partner, Goldsmiths will develop “high-quality support and training for our Artsmark schools and education settings, marking a new chapter of collaboration, innovation, and creativity”.

Warden of Goldsmiths Professor Frances Corner says the university is delighted to be supporting the delivery of the programme.  

“This is timely and vital work in a context of economic uncertainty and evidenced inequalities in England’s cultural education landscape, and we are proud of the opportunity to make a difference, inspire ambition, and contribute to social mobility in and through the arts and culture.”

Primary school children from four schools in London have built a temporary performance structure at South London theatre Brixton House.

Organised by architecture educator Matt + Fiona, the project, called Let’s Build, was designed to teach participants creative and practical building skills that are disappearing from schools.

The number of students studying design and technology at GCSE level has seen the steepest decline of all creative subjects, having dropped by two-thirds in the last decade.

"Design and build projects of this kind are invaluable in helping to fill the gap left behind," said Matt + Fiona co-founder Fiona MacDonald.

"They give young people the agency to shape their own environments and grow in confidence and their own identities."

The performance structures are made of timber and will remain in the theatre for schools and community groups to use for free. It will also be used as a rehearsal space for the Brixton House Youth Theatre.

Brixton House, which commissioned the project, then plans to donate the structures to any interested schools or community groups.