Are you passionate about inspiring young people and looking for support to teach Shakespeare? This course will help you acquire the knowledge, confidence and skills to begin using our approaches to bring Shakespeare’s plays to life in your classroom.

Upcoming course dates

• 17-18 October 2025 and 9 January 2026

How to book

To book email learning.boxoffice@rsc.org.uk or call the Learning Hotline on 01789 331259 (midday-6pm, Monday – Friday, excluding Bank Holidays)

Cost

£450 - includes three full days of professional development, a ticket to a production on one of our stages, and a resource pack of teaching and learning activities from the course.

ELIGIBILITY

Our Foundation Certificate courses are open to any teacher, educator or student who teaches Shakespeare or may teach Shakespeare in the future. No prior experience is required. Equally, experienced teachers are also welcome as this course provides an excellent change to consolidate your knowledge and try new techniques with our rehearsal room approaches.

Attaining our Foundation Certificate automatically qualifies you for our Intermediate Certificate course.

Questions about eligibility? Please get in touch at: teachers.courses@rsc.org.uk

Professional Outcomes

In addition to supporting research-informed and evidence-based professional development through an enjoyable and interactive day at the RSC exploring Shakespeare, teachers on our Certificate courses work towards specific professional outcomes.

Completing our Foundation Certificate in Teaching Shakespeare course will support you to develop the knowledge, confidence and skills to…

1. use various theatre-based practices to introduce and explore the plots and characters in Shakespeare’s plays with your students.
2. use rehearsal room approaches to develop your students’ understanding of Shakespeare’s text, including monologues, soliloquies and dialogue.
3. enable young people to work as text detectives to interrogate the text to explore different interpretations and performance possibilities.
4. ensure effective planning for incorporating rehearsal room approaches into your lessons, with a particular focus on engaging and progressing learning for lower attaining students.
5. create a secure learning environment in which your students feel confident to take risks and to work physically and vocally as a company of actors.
6. choose scenes or speeches that best unlock the language / themes / plot to anchor your students’ analysis of a Shakespeare play.

COURSE CONTENT

• Building the foundations: introducing ways of working that will ensure your students are ready to engage with Shakespeare’s plays.
• Company building: exercises to establish approaching Shakespeare from the perspective of an acting company.
• Creating the world of the play: ways of introducing or building on existing knowledge of the play.
• Active close reading: analysing key speeches and scenes through rehearsal and performance.
• Understanding plot: ways of helping students access Shakespeare’s plots and storylines.
• Developing inclusive practices: with a particular focus on supporting lower attainers.
• Practical advice: work with expert subject specialists to discuss adapting the work to your own context and the transferability of our approaches to other texts.
• Reflective task: a task to further develop teaching practice by considering the opportunities and challenges of working in this way.

COURSE Structure

Day 1, 10am - 4.30pm This day includes an evening performance in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Day 2, 9am - 3.30pm

Between the first two days of the course and the third there is a gap of time for course participants to apply some of the techniques covered in their classrooms.

Day 3, 10am - 4.30pm

Questions?

Please visit our dedicated FAQs page.

If you cannot find the answer you're looking for, please get in touch: teachers.courses@rsc.org.uk