Following the stunning success of West Swindon Schools' Millennium Shakespeare Festival in May 2000, when over 1,200 children from sixteen primary and secondary schools, and three colleges performed thirty five of Shakespeare's plays, Neil Griffiths, director of the internationally acclaimed National Storysack Project, has become involved with students at Greendown School to create another world first: a Shakespeare Storysack.

Local support was swift in coming. Swindon's Link Magazine, paper sister to www.swindonlink.com impressed by the ambitious nature of the project, has sponsored the production of the prototype sack.

The students aged 11-15, guided by Shakespeare expert Tim Noble, assistant headteacher at Greendown, meet once a week after school to research and create the basic contents of the now famous Storysack concept. The team have adapted Macbeth as a 30 minute shadow puppet presentation for 7 year olds, which they can also use to enact parts of the play for themselves and study the characters from the story. A board game based on the play has been designed, complete with bloody dagger tiles and curse cards with questions to be answered correctly before going on. A sound effects tape is being made and teachers notes are also being prepared.non-fiction text teaching ideas and the story itself.

Link publisher Roger Ogle hands Tim Noble a cheque to pay for the materials for the Macbeth Storysack, with Neil Griffiths, centre, and the ground breaking Shakespeare sack crew

Neil, the former headteacher of Westlea Primary School in West Swindon, before becoming the director of the the Basic Skills Agency funded National Storysack Project, is delighted with progress and is highly optimistic about the uptake of the idea by teachers in primary schools. "Everywhere I do a presentation, I'm asked if anyone is developing Storysacks to introduce Shakespeare to younger children. Now I can point them to Greendown School."

Many of the students have already performed Shakespeare at primary school. Indeed, Matthew Bonney, now in year 10, played Peter Quince in Midsummer Night's Dream whilst at Westlea, with Neil Griffiths. Several had parts in the Millennium Festival 2000 when at primary school. They also have another incentive to work for: the creation of the sack will allow them an early entry in GCSE Expressive Arts in April 2002. Leanne Price, year 8, who played the Princess Imogen from Cymbeline in the 2000 festival - the only girl in the group - will take the exam three years early, but Nico Reccioni and James Wells, both in year 7 will have a GCSE certificate four years ahead of their peers.

Tim Noble is very enthusiastic about the learning opportunities offered by the project. "We had tremendous success last year when a group of year 9 students took Expressive Arts in two terms, two years early - gaining two A*, four A and three C grades between them.

Four Greendown students creating a play theatre for seven year olds to study Shakespeare

"We are recording every aspect of the development and trial as part of the production process. The students will take the sack into partner primary schools, working particularly closely with Oliver Tomkins Infants School, to try out the contents with children and develop notes for teachers. It may be that other schools around the country will want to use this as a template for developing their own ideas under the Storysack banner."

In January the Greendown students will be trying out their prototype with seven year olds at Oliver Tomkins Infants School in West Swindon. Teacher Rhian Cockwell said she was excited about the new aid at her disposal. "Our Autumn topic was theatre and we are moving on to Macbeth in the January. The Storysack has huge potential for helping young children understand the story."

Contacts:

• Neil Griffths, Director, The National Storysacks Project. 01793 421168
• Tim Noble, Assistant Headteacher, Greendown School. 01793 874224
• Penny Summers, Headteacher, Oliver Tomkins Infants School. 01793 870471
• Roger Ogle, Publisher, The Link Magazine, Swindon. 01793 872282 (For hi-res. photographs, email: publisher@swindonlink.com)

Sites

• www.storysacks.co.uk
• www.swindonlink.com
• www.basic-skills.co.uk
• West Swindon Shakespeare Festival 2000

More about Storysacks

A Storysack is a cloth bag containing items to develop pre-school language skills, designed and made by volunteers. Created around a picture book to be read by a child and adult together, a sack contains soft toys of the main characters with props and scenery to bring the story to life.

A non-fiction book linked to the theme, an audio-tape and a language game based on the book are included. Also provided is an ideas card suggesting further ways for parents to develop a child's listening, reading and writing skills using the sack contents.

First developed in the early 1990s in Swindon, Storysacks are now used in every local education authority in Britain and also in Canada, USA, Hong Kong, South Africa, Japan, Peru, Australia, Italy and Norway, where they have been adapted to foster literacy skills and also to engender cultural identity.