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With
the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy in
1997, English primary teachers were faced with the study
of a Shakespeare play in Year 6 term 1. They were linked
to secondary English teachers who are now required to
teach Shakespeare in year 9 and Year 10/11.
In
West Swindon's nine primary schools, many pupils had
been finding out about Shakespeare as part of history
topics on the Tudors, but very few pupils had looked
closely at Shakespeare's language, plays or theatre.
One
exception was the year 6 children from Westlea School
who, in September 1997, started rehearsing A Midsummer
Night's Dream. Deputy headteacher, Alison Pass was determined
to make the most of a long and productive cross-phase
relationship with West Swindon's secondary school -
Greendown - and sought help in planning the performance,
from Tim Noble, senior teacher at Greendown.
The
Dream was performed in December 1997 and nothing has
been quite the same since in West Swindon's primary
and secondary classrooms.
Once
we realised that ten year olds could learn, enjoy and
understand Shakespeare's language by acting his plays,
we began to think of other ways of teaching his work
so as to generate and then maintain enthusiasm and excitement
about his work for all the children of West Swindon,
no matter what their age.
another
design by....
swindonlink.com
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