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Y5 have had a fantastic week immersing themselves in the works of William Shakespeare. On Tuesday Y5 & 6 went to The Globe Theatre in London. There was a packed agenda for the day. First they went to see the permanent exhibition, which includes scale models of the theatre, original artefacts from Shakespeare's time, and costumes that would have been worn on stage. An exciting demonstration of stage fighting techniques was next on the agenda. The children witnessed thrilling combat using swords, daggers, shields and wooden stakes. They were allowed to hold the weapons and some of them even got to try on armour and chain mail.
Next they were shown how a Tudor printing press would have printed copies of Shakespeare's plays. It was interesting to see that spelling was rather more flexible in those days, and also how time-consuming it was to put together any printed material.
After a very quick lunch they went into The Globe Theatre itself and saw rehearsals for "All's Well That Ends Well" which is being staged next month. Finally, there was a drama workshop focusing on aspects of Macbeth led by a professional actor. It was a fabulous opportunity to find out first-hand about Shakespeare's life and times.
Y5 have also been staging their own 60 second productions of Shakespeare’s plays this week. They could choose between Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth and they planned and then wrote their own scripts in small groups. Thursday was the big day and each group acted out their scripts to the rest of the class. All the children have learnt so much this week, and hopefully this will only be the beginning of a life-long love for Shakespeare.
