We are so proud and excited to announce that, as of 8th May, we are now officially at the starting point of our exciting three year journey with our partner schools to revolutionise the teaching of Shakespeare in Thanet and beyond by “doing it on our feet, seeing it live and starting it early” — the three essential principles of active learning approaches in the RSC “Stand Up For Shakespeare” manifesto.
On Friday, 8th May, King Ethelbert School hosted its first major training event to launch our new Royal Shakespeare Company Learning Performance Network, in partnership with The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Marlowe Theatre and eight selected school across Kent. The event was lead by Rachel Gartside, one of our fantastic RSC partner practitioners. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves exploring active approaches to teaching the Henry plays, some of Shakespeare’s most vibrant history plays. The day included charging into “the breach” (my favourite bit!) plugging the hole in the Honfleur castle wall with “our English dead” (!) and screaming “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!” the rallying cry of Prince Hal.
Our partner schools are Cliftonville Primary School, Dame Janet Primary School, St. Saviours Primary School, St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, The Ashford School, Kings Rochester School, Ellington and Hereson School and Highworth Grammar School. We are delighted to have recruited such a wonderful mix and balance of schools across Kent who are all so committed to and excited by the partnership and the opportunities and possibilities it will offer our students and our communities.
As an outcome of the training day, ourselves and our partners are now taking our learning back to our schools, sharing it with other teachers in our departments and using the day to build interesting and lively work with our pupils, which we will share, and celebrate with each other.
You can watch the film of the day made by Joshua Jones, our featured, talented Year 13 film maker, which accompanies this article. Associated links (and more of Joshua’s wonderful films!) can be found in our Reading Week pages and our RSC pages. Enjoy!