Once you have completed the Intermediate Certificate course, the highest tier of our Certificate in Teaching Shakespeare is the ultimate opportunity to extend your practice.

Upcoming Course Dates

Registration for our next Advanced Certificate course is now open. Our next course will run across two academic years: 2023/2024 and 2024/2025. Please note that whilst originally due to begin in April, our next course will begin in September.

• Launch event: 4pm - 5.30pm, Monday 16 September 2024 (online)
• Research Phase: October 2024 to May 2025, with submission of Research Projects in June 2025
• Stratford Phase: summer 2025 (dates TBC)

The launch event for our next Advanced Certificate course will take place online and will introduce participants to structuring their action research projects. The research phase will then take place in their schools with support from RSC tutors. This phase will culminate with a submission of research reports for review, before the final phase of the course which will involve four days of CPD in Stratford-upon-Avon.

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

• £550 UK state school teachers
• £750 UK independent school teachers
• £300 ECTs (Early Career Teachers)*

If you do not see yourself represented in the categories above please see our FAQs page or contact teachers.courses@rsc.org.uk  

ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility for our Advanced Certificate course comes upon completion of one of our Intermediate Certificate courses. Under exceptional circumstances, teachers who have worked with the RSC for several years, such as through our Associate Schools programme or as one of our international partners, may be eligible to start at the Advanced level of our Certificate programme.

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 Advanced Certificate in Teaching Shakespeare course will support you to develop the knowledge, confidence and skills to:

1. design and facilitate lessons which ensure the equitable inclusion of all your students.
2. sequence innovative teaching activities which meet your students’ objectives by scaffolding the necessary learning.
3. undertake sustained practice-informed research to evaluate the impact of rehearsal room approaches and pedagogy on student learning, supporting your development as a reflective, evidence-informed teacher/practitioner.
4. utilise a deepened knowledge and understanding of rehearsal room pedagogy to enable your students to respond to Shakespeare’s plays through the perspectives of actors, directors, designers and other theatre artists.
5. use techniques to deepen learning in your classroom by empowering your students to make informed interpretative choices in their reading, speaking, written analysis and performance of Shakespeare’s texts.
6. engage with constructive feedback, reflection and dialogic approaches to inform your future planning and delivery of rehearsal room approaches and to enable your students to reflect constructively on their own and/or their peers’ written, verbal and performed responses.

Course Content

• Deepening and widening expertise: further develop your understanding and use of rehearsal room approaches and the underpinning pedagogy.
• Teacher as researcher: carry out a piece of research into the effects of rehearsal room approaches within your teaching of Shakespeare with support from the RSC.
• Research-informed reflective practice: solidify your position as a reflective educator by engaging in debates and conversations around evidence that supports the use rehearsal room approaches to teach Shakespeare.
• Teacher as artist: engage with a series of workshops to explore learning about Shakespeare from the perspectives of actors, directors, designers and other creatives at the RSC to further enhance your teaching skillset.
• Teaching with confidence: reflect on your achievements and consolidate the enhanced level of practice achieved through our Certificate courses. 
• Specific teaching environments: focus with greater precision on the needs and expectations of individual students in your Shakespeare classroom by taking part in an observed workshop, reflecting on our pedagogies in action.
• Transferable skills: further enhance your ability to transfer approaches to different plays and contexts from Shakespeare to contemporary literature and drama.

Course STRUCTURE

Research Phase

Undertake a piece of research in your school environment over the course of  8-9 months into the effects of using the RSC's rehearsal room approaches and pedagogies in your specific teaching and learning context.

• Launch event: an online seminar focusing on how to undertake a piece of action research. Next date: 4.00pm - 5.30pm, Monday 15 April 2024
• Submission of research questions: formulate your line of enquiry and submit your research project for approval to the RSC.
• Confirmation of research: receive confirmation to begin your research or receive support to restructure your project from RSC practitioners.
• Action research project: undertake your research project in your school with support from RSC tutors. There will also be another group seminar half-way through the research phase to support all participants research.
• Action research report: write up your findings into a 2,500 word report, analysing and evaluating your implementation of rehearsal room approaches.
• Report submission: submit your report to the RSC for review. Preliminary deadline: December 2024
• Feedback: receive specific feedback from RSC tutors and practitioners on your research before moving on to the in person phase of this course.

Stratford Phase

Four days of in person CPD at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon. The dates for this phase will be announced in future along with our 2025 season. This phase will likely take place at some point within the first half of 2025.

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