The Shakespeare in Schools Manifesto says:
DO IT ON YOUR FEET
The S4K way:
Put on your own version of our five star shows as your next school play!
All S4K shows are available for your school or group to put on. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to mount a full scale Shakespeare musical of your own, and with the Teacher Pack, photocopying licenses, music and CDs all included - it couldn't be easier!
 "Many students who find Shakespeare boring say that sitting at desks and reading the plays, rather than performing them, is one of the main frustrations.
The best classroom experience we can offer is one which allows young people to approach a Shakespeare play as actors do – as an ensemble, using active, exploratory, problem-solving methods to develop a greater understanding and enjoyment of the plays.
Some of the most successful Shakespeare classrooms we have seen are ones where:
- Young people are up on their feet, moving around, saying the text aloud, exploring the feelings and ideas that emerge
- There is a focus on physical and emotional, as well as intellectual, responses to the text
- An edited text is used to allow students to gain confidence with language
- Active approaches are used to inform and test critical analysis
- Pupils investigate a range of interpretive choices in the text and negotiate these with their teacher
- Drama techniques are used to explore language, meaning, character and motivation
- Understanding of the play is assessed through a combination of creative oral and written responses
These active, theatre-based approaches acknowledge the importance of kinaesthetic learning – learning through doing and feeling.
By engaging directly and physically with the words and rhythms of the text, complex thoughts and language start to make sense to young people and invite instinctive and personal responses.
Active techniques ensure that experiences of Shakespeare are inherently inclusive since they embrace all age ranges and abilities.
They also mean that Shakespeare is collectively owned as participants collaborate and build a shared understanding of the play - with the whole class becoming ‘co-owners’ and ‘doers’.
Active work promotes a way of engaging with Shakespeare as a playwright who still speaks to young people from all cultures and backgrounds."
Schools that Stand up for Shakespeare:
- Ensure that introductory teaching of Shakespeare is rooted in active, exploratory approaches.
- Maintain these approaches with older students.
- Give young people the chance to create their own performances of Shakespeare’s plays.
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