While Mr Ed Balls, the Education Secretary, and his team of advisers contemplate the possibility of introducing Shakespeare to five year olds, the girls of Burgess Hill School for Girls are already one step ahead of the game! Over fifty Year six students, studying the Bard as part of their coursework, performed a workshop production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ to an audience as young as ‘rising fives’.

‘We all loved it’, announced Lucy Collins from Year one. ‘My favourite part was when Bottom turned into a donkey and the Fairy Queen fell in love with him. I laughed and laughed!’

‘I remember studying this play at school’, explained their Headteacher, Miss Fenneke Fulleylove. ‘We sat at desks and read the text round the class. No-one really understood it properly. Our amazing young actresses here have appreciated all the nuances of the writing and their love for Shakespeare will last a lifetime.’

The music for the production was written by the Junior students themselves and performed on violins, flute and clarinet. The girls also choreographed the dances and made full use of the script written by one of the class teachers, Mrs. Jill Walkinton. The pupils produced the show in only six weeks and, as part of the experience,  enjoyed two sessions with ‘Shakespeare4kids’, a team of professional actors who came into school to give the girls further insight into the play.

‘Shakespeare is as relevant today as he was four hundred years ago,’ Emma Hughes told us. ‘Our whole year group had such fun performing the show. I wish every school could learn Shakespeare like this.

17/03/08

Shakespeare for kids