Memorandum submitted by the Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC)
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SHAKESPEARE OF THE REMOVAL
OF KEY STAGE 3 TESTS
"My senior manager will no longer release
me to attend the training day as Shakespeare isn't a priority
anymore", secondary school English teacher, 15 October 2008
1. SUMMARY
Whilst we welcome the removal of current National
Curriculum tests at Key Stage 3 (KS3), we are concerned that Shakespeare
will fall off the curriculum by default if the Government does
not now set clear expectations for the teaching and assessment
of Shakespeare at KS3.
We believe it is meaningless to say that Shakespeare
is a compulsory part of the KS3 curriculum if there's no effective
way of mandating practice in schools.
Moreover, we want that mandate to promote the
teaching practices we know excite, engage and inspire all learners
since it is these approaches that will seed a life-long engagement
with Shakespeare, help academic attainment and ensure a wider
cultural engagement.
We want to ensure that Shakespeare retains a
central and meaningful place in the educational and cultural life
of KS3 pupils.
We hope the Children, Schools and Families Select
Committee will support our calls for his plays to have a proper
place in the new assessment framework for KS3.
2. WHAT WE'VE
SEEN SINCE
THE TESTS
WERE CANCELLED
— As soon as the announcement about
the removal of tests was made on 14 October, we began to receive
calls from teachers wishing to cancel places on KS3 Continuing
Professional Development courses because managers would no longer
release them as "Shakespeare is not a priority anymore".
— Of the training courses we are running
that are focused on KS3 teaching of Shakespeare we have had up
to 50% of teachers cancelling places.
— We have seen over a 50% drop in the
number of KS3 INSET courses booked by schools and local authorities.
In 2007-08 we delivered 36 KS3 INSET days across the country working
with 900 teachers (with similar numbers delivered in previous
years). This figure has now dropped to 15 courses.
— This picture is already being replicated
in other theatres across the country—particularly smaller
ones who have created specific programmes of work to support the
Year 9 National Curriculum tests.
— We are particularly concerned that
lower ability students at KS3 could be denied access to Shakespeare
since they may be selected out of the experience.
3. WHAT WE
KNOW ABOUT
EFFECTIVE TEACHING
PRACTICE
We—along with other theatre companies—have
worked with schools and teachers for many years. We work with
around 20,000 children and 2,000 teachers annually and our Learning
and Performance Network now covers over 250 schools around the
country, chosen because a high proportion of their pupils are
entitled to free school meals and have little access to live performance.
From the evidence we've gained from our experiences,
we know that active approaches to teaching Shakespeare can engage
and inspire all learners.
We are currently conducting research with the
University of Warwick into the active teaching methods we use
and early results show improved academic attainment, increased
confidence and self-esteem, an extremely positive experience of
Shakespeare and a propensity for wider cultural engagement amongst
children who've experienced these methods.
Our "Stand up for Shakespeare" campaign,
launched in March with a manifesto which called for young people
to See it Live, Start it Earlier and Do it on your Feet, has gained
over 7,400 signatories and the support of educationalists, theatre
artists, academics, teachers and young people across the country.
We know the practices endorsed by our manifesto
bring Shakespeare to life.
4. WHAT WE
BELIEVE THE
CURRENT RISKS
ARE
However, these active approaches depend on teacher
confidence in using such methods in the classroom and there are
training and prioritisation issues.
We know that teachers already have a very limited
exposure to Shakespeare during their formal training. We conducted
a poll of PGCE students about to enter the English teaching profession
last year. The most that any student spent on the teaching of
Shakespeare during their training was four hours and this was
primarily focused around the needs of the KS3 National Curriculum
test.
If the message from senior managers to teachers
is that Shakespeare isn't important any more and the budgets currently
available for Continuing Professional Development in this area
are being cut, we won't see these active practices extended and
are likely to see them fall away in many areas.
We have already been working with the Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority to look at new ways of assessing Shakespeare,
which are currently being trialled in the Making Good Progress
pilot schools.
We believe these assessment methods will help
endorse the importance of Shakespeare and we would like to see
them form part of any new assessment framework for KS3. If they
are not included, Shakespeare could become a thing of the past,
rather than a cultural beacon whose work exposes the ever-present
dilemmas of the human condition and lights the way for so many
young people to a wider cultural engagement.
5. WHAT WE'D
LIKE TO
SEE
We are sure this is an unintended consequence
of the SATS abolition and we call on the Select Committee to help
us remedy it and bring Shakespeare back into play.
— We would like to know what steps
will be taken to ensure that Shakespeare's place as the only compulsory
author studied by all young people in KS3 is properly regulated.
— We know that Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP,
the DCSF Minister responsible for the National Curriculum, will
be appearing in front of the Select Committee at the end of November
and we would ask members to raise the issue as part of your discussions.
— If plans are developed for a portfolio
of assessments at KS3, we want to see a Shakespeare assessment
as a compulsory part of this.
— We have been working with the QCA
on creating new ways of assessing Shakespeare at KS3 and these
are being trialled in schools at the moment—we hope these
will provide a useful template.
— We would be very happy to brief the
Select Committee further on our work and provide further information
and evidence if this would be helpful.
November 2008
NOTES
Further information on the Royal Shakespeare
Company is available at www.rsc.org.uk
Details of our manifesto "Stand up for
Shakespeare" can be found at www.rsc.org.uk/standupforshakespeare
along with many hundreds of endorsements on how Shakespeare has
inspired individuals—see Appendix 1 for just some examples.
APPENDIX 1
MESSAGES IN
SUPPORT OF
STAND UP
FOR SHAKESPEARE
HAVE INCLUDED:
Ray Fearon (actor) When I was at school
the name Shakespeare frightened me. So I avoided it at every possible
cost. I thought it was for very middle-class people who spoke
posh and went to Cambridge/Oxford. Reading it made no sense to
me. Years later, when I was auditioning for drama school, I had
to do it, otherwise I wouldn't get in. To my surprise it was in
the doing of it that it came alive for me. I've done workshops
in many schools for the RSC. Talking about Shakespeare bores them
to tears, but when you ask them to learn a piece of text, get
on their feet like actors do, it becomes alive for them. This
is the only way I know how to teach kids Shakespeare, and that's
from an actors approach to it. I support Stand up for Shakespeare
wholeheartedly.
Ben, aged 8, Stokeinteignhead Primary School,
Devon, after doing a unit of work with his teacher on Hamlet:
My dad said Shakespeare was boring, but he's got it wrong! I'm
gonna tell him about Hamlet. It's got murders and ghosts and castles
and stuff and that's not boring. What are we doing next?
Ian McKellen (actor) A seven year old
told me, having seen the RSC's latest Lear, it was "the best
play he had ever seen" in his entire life. I'm glad the RSC
is encouraging other youngsters to share his enthusiasm.
Janet Suzman (actor) Bravo! I have been
saying "Stand up" in talks, books and lectures and classes
for 40 years. There's no other way to understand Shakespeare and
learn not to be bored by or scared of him. It's a turn-on.
Sue Horner (the Head of Curriculum for
the QCA) It makes a real difference to help young people to see
the excitement of Shakespeare's plays and to explore what they
mean. A love of literature and drama is something to be treasured
for the whole of life, offering a world of pleasure and knowledge.
Learning to express yourself creatively and imaginatively is vital
for all young people's education. The approaches to Shakespeare
in the manifesto will make a great contribution to this.
Sandra Barnes (Teacher, Greenacre School,
Barnsley, S. Yorks) I teach drama in a school for children with
learning difficulties. Over the past 2 years we have participated
in the Shakespeare festival and intend to participate in many
more. The students love Shakespeare. They come to each play with
no|. more preconceived notions of it being boring or stuffy and
the enthusiasm they show in their performance supports the notion
that Shakespeare needs to be a dynamic activity not a sedentary
chore!
Michael Attenborough (director) To witness
young people relishing the imaginative scale and richness of Shakespeare,
either as participants or audiences, is a thrilling experience.
The key lies in the precise way they find access to his genius,
such that they feel an instinctive ownership of his drama and
his language. This is achieved through experiencing him, not just
intellectually but, crucially, emotionally, as they discover on
an individual basis the connection between a character and his
or her personal need for those specific, extraordinary words.
Such ownership can only really be found by actually doing it,
playing an integral part in the act of theatre itself.
Philip Voss (actor) Start young. Don't
analyse the works from behind a desk. Perform them in front of
the class. Shakespeare comes alive when he is acted. He is wise,
he is sad, and the jokes are good too.
Paul Kelly (Headteacher, Birkdale Primary
School, Southport, Merseyside) Two recent Ofsted reports, one
for school and the other, a national report on creativity commented,
"The school provides an outstanding curriculum that is rich,
stimulating and innovative."| "The Shakespeare project
included a stimulus workshop with the RSC" and commented
that the subsequent work in school was an example "of outstanding
teaching being converted into excellent teaching". Over 50
teachers in the authority have now worked with the RSC. It became
apparent to those involved that the skills learned "were
not just relevant to Shakespeare or writing skills, but could
also be used as a methodology across the curriculum". Above
all, it was great fun!
Tim Jessie Auguste (Ricards Lodge High
school, Wimbledon) We are part of a three year programme with
RSC and it has opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Shakespeare.
I find his work amazing and it is a brilliant experience to both
watch and perform!
Timothy West (actor) I owe my love of
Shakespeare to my English teacher at Secondary school. "You're
never going to understand any of this," he said to his class,
"until you feel what it is like to say those words, and have
those words said to you. Clear all the desks to the edge of the
room, we're going to get up and do the play." For half an
hour or so, we sulked in embarrassment, but after that we were
hooked: most of us, I believe, for life.
Harriet Walter (actor) Shakespeare is
not inherently elitist. He wrote his plays for everyone. If you
get up and DO Shakespeare rather than just studying him at a school
desk, you get a direct experience of what makes him special. It
doesn't need to be explained. You still have to work at him (what's
wrong with that?) but you have a personal handle on him and want
to know more. The earlier this happens in a person's life the
less time prejudice and intimidation have to take hold. When schools
and companies like the RSC work together they help unlock the
talent and enthusiasm that could provide a broader social base
for performers and audiences of the future. Everyone benefits.
Chris Pope (co-director of the Prince's
Teaching Institute) The Prince's Teaching Institute believes that
all children, irrespective of background or academic ability,
should be introduced to the masterpieces of the past and present.
We are therefore delighted to support Stand up for Shakespeare
and to be working with the RSC to ensure that teachers in classrooms
across the country bring Shakespeare to life.
Andrea Ellis (Specialist Schools and
Academies Trust) The "Stand up For Shakespeare" manifesto
places Shakespeare where he belongs—at the very heart of
our education system. It makes explicit the connection between
an enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare and the development
of our students as successful learners and global citizens. It
"stands up" for an equality of access for all students
to the world's greatest commentator on the human condition.
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