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We did not need to look far. The life-work of Dr Rex
Gibson, General Editor of the Cambridge University Shakespeare,
has been devoted to helping children and their teachers
discover for themselves how to create their own versions
of Shakespeare and thus come to the plays already charged
with excitement and a desire to find out more.
In October 1998, Rex fired up twenty West Swindon primary
and secondary teachers with 'active' approaches to The
Tempest. For a full day they tried out a dozen methods
of making Shakespeare's language 'physically visible'
and accessible. There were no holds barred and the teachers
went back to introduce 500 pupils aged 10 and 11 to
aspects of the play.
Alison Pass and Peter Newberry at Westlea School and
Karen Winterburn and Simon Burrell at Tregoze School
used The Tempest as the basis for a complete terms work
across the primary curriculum as well as performing
the play. Inspectors from the Office for Standards in
Education (Ofsted) who saw the work were highly complimentary.
National Power and WH Smith gave the schools £6,000
to mount the first West Swindon Schools' Shakespeare
Festival and by the end of the year, active teaching
methods were being tried out in several schools, and
in front of Ofsted inspectors.
The Festival produced three performances of The Tempest
by over one hundred and forty children aged 10 and 11,
with national attention from a Radio 4 programme focussing
on the teaching of Shakespeare in primary schools. Along
the way Elizabethan pedlar Jack Greene spent a week
visiting schools in the area, telling them about Shakespearian
times, contributing to their knowledge of Tudor Britain.
The
1999 festival concluded with five performance of The
Tempest by the Salisbury Playhouse/ Sixth Sense Theatre
Company watched by some seven hundred local children.
another
design by....
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