Swindon world premiere for Shakespeare Storysack

Greendown storysack students with children from Oliver Tomkins School

William Shakespeare will soon be learnt as never before, thanks to youngsters from Swindon's Greendown School who officially unveiled a new way of teaching the Bard to all ages and abilities on 30 May.

At an inspired presentation to dignitaries, teachers and parents, children from Greendown in Grange Park and Oliver Tomkins Infants School in Toothill showed off how they have been working together to develop an understanding of Shakespeare's work using dynamic interactive techniques based on the early years literacy aid Storysacks.

Since September ten Greendown students ranging in age from 12 to 15 years have been working after-school on the storysack, the first time it has been tried. Seven youngsters hope to have gained their GCSE in Expressive Arts as a result of their efforts.

According to Storysacks inventor former Westlea School headteacher Neil Griffiths, now director of the internationally acclaimed National Storysack Project, teachers around the world are waiting to see the results. Up to now Story Sacks, first created in the early 1990s with the help of parent volunteers at Westlea School in Swindon, have been used in pre-school and infant classes to promote reading and parental interaction. Each sack is based on a children's book and contains puppets and scenery to illustrate the story, plus games and an audio tapes to encourage language development. They are now in use throughout the UK and in sixty other countries.

Greendown storysack students with children from Oliver Tomkins School Trying out the Macbeth storysack board game, Greendown parent Judith Blake, who applied her professional artistic skills, with game designers James Wells and Matthew Bonny and Abigail Lloyd and Sam Green from Oliver Tomkins infants school

"Wherever I promote Story Sacks in Britain or abroad, I'm asked if the idea is applicable to Shakespeare; teachers are desperate for ways to make the plays more accessible," said Neil. "I've always dreamt of Story Sacks for older children and from what I have seen over the last few month, the Greendown students could have come up with some fantastic ideas, way beyond what I could have imagined. It's a winning formula which could go far."

The Greendown prototype Shakespeare Story Sack is based on Macbeth and is aimed at 7 to 14 year olds who will act the play or tell the story to others using large stick puppets of the main characters, a model of Macbeth's castle and scenery, such as the famous walking wood. The students have invented a fold out board game with questions about the play based on key lines and quotations and a game based on a sound effects CD produced by the students. The sack will also include a video of the group acting a short version of Macbeth.

Teacher Tim Noble said the Shakespeare Sack project has brought together strands of work that have been developing in Swindon over a number of years. "The West Swindon Shakespeare Festival in 2000 which involved 15 primary schools, secondary schools and local colleges, gave us the confidence to explore new ways of learning Shakespeare.

"Most adults remember studying the plays as a dry, perhaps a boring experience at secondary school. Now children aged seven to sixteen are expected by the national curriculum to study Shakespeare and teaming up with Neil with his experience of early years literacy was a natural link to make.

"The aim is to make Shakespeare accessible by getting children physically involved in the plays, exploring the characters through the puppets to build an understanding of the language, the verse and the sounds, intensifying their delight by using the games.

"Trying out the Shakespeare Sack with young children has already shown what a tremendous potential it has as a teaching aid. The contents provides a basis for stimulating ideas and imagination, it encourages children to come up with their own answers."

South Swindon MP Julia Drown, right, with the Deputy Mayor and Mayoress of Swindon Derek and Pam Benfield, try out some of the puppet characters with Greendown students, from left, Chris Ashbolt, Sean Haynes, Steven Embling, Daniel Nicholls. Front, Oliver Tomkins infants, Stephanie Bean, Sarah Finnie, Elizabeth Huchins, Eiranjit Chahal

The Storysack had an eager reception following the presentation on 30 May. South Swindon MP Julia Drown said she had enjoyed it greatly. "I'd like to congratulate the young people and Tim Noble for developing a project that has huge potential in education. I'm very proud that the idea has come from a school in Swindon."

Deputy Mayor Derek Benfield and his wife enjoyed watching the children at work. "It was a wonderful morning. We thought the students were brilliant; we're so impressed by the commitment of the young people and the tremendous confidence they have to tackle complex ideas."

Westlea headteacher Suzanne Seaton was delighted to see so many of her former pupils working on advanced Shakespeare. Several performed in 'A Midsummer's Night Dream' in 1998 at Westlea, put on with the help of Tim Noble. "Our Shakespeare work opened up new ways of teaching and Tim was an inspiration in this. The partnership between Westlea and Greendown is a very positive one which we want to continue."

Martin Grant, Swindon's new assistant director of education responsible for school improvement from private education contractors Tribal, said he was 'very moved' by what he had seen. "It was impressive to see children from primary and secondary school working so well together. This has potential for smoothing the transition between phases of schooling and raising standards of literacy.

"It's great to see such high quality work and good practice early in our contract. We will be drawing on the real and obvious strengths in Swindon schools to promote rapid improvements in standards."