At the 16th Festival of Education, RSC Deputy Executive Director and Director of Creative Learning and Engagement, Jacqui O’Hanlon, led a panel discussion on stage. She was joined by RSC Trustee and former General Secretary of the Association of Schools and College Leaders, Geoff Barton; actor and practitioner, Chris Nayak; and English Curriculum Lead at Stratford High School, Stephanie Hill.

The panel discussion focused on the impact of partnerships between arts organisations and schools; the difference that Shakespeare’s plays and RSC teaching approaches can make to young people’s learning and life outcomes; and the ways in which this work is now widely accessible through the Shakespeare Curriculum.

The discussion also previewed the our Building Partnerships: A 20 Year Story of Arts Impact programme: a series of special events and performances taking place this autumn to celebrate two decades of working in long-term partnerships with schools across the country.

It also included a short interactive lesson from the Shakespeare Curriculum, demonstrating the RSC’s teaching approaches.

Both initiatives are rooted in the RSC’s evidence-based belief that the combination of Shakespeare’s plays and its oracy based creative learning approaches, significantly improve young people’s experiences of Shakespeare in school as well as their social, emotional and academic development.   

The Shakespeare Curriculum is described as one of the most significant developments in the teaching of Shakespeare in a generation. Free to all state-funded and special educational needs and disability secondary schools in the UK, it responds to long-standing concerns from teachers and young people about how Shakespeare is experienced in the classroom.

Since launching in November, a third of all state-funded secondary schools have signed up.

BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS

The Building Partnerships: A 20 Year Story of Arts Impact programme takes place this autumn and will include:  

• FACTORY: a verbatim piece of theatre created by campaign-led arts charity, LUNG Theatre, and performed by the RSC’s young company, Next Generation Act.
• Buidling Partnerships: A 20 Year Story: a public Arts Symposium, bringing our partner schools, theatres and communities together with colleagues from across the cultutal sector to share learnings and shape the future of our partnership work.
• First Encounters: Julius Caesar: Harriet Walter reprises her role as Brutus in Phyllida Lloyd’s groundbreaking 2012 all-female production of Julius Caesar. The production will tour to five schools, including one week residencies at each stop, before a short run at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon.
• A Young Creatives Festival: an inspirational day and culmination of the work created with young people through the Julius Caesar tour residencies, curated by the RSC’s Youth Advisory Board