Eastbury Community School's long-lasting partnership with Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Associate Schools Programme is a long-term partnership programme between the RSC, schools and associate regional theatres across England. It aims to improve experiences of Shakespeare in school as well as make sure that more children are exposed to the benefits that arts and cultural learning can deliver.
Anita Ark, English Lead Practitioner of Eastbury Community School in Barking shares with us the exciting news that after a decade of partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), the school has transitioned to a new tier of Associate School: RSC Champion School.
“Eastbury Community School is a large all-through school in East London serving a diverse community. In 2013 we were successfully apportioned a Lead Associate School on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s leading education program, Associate Schools Programme, and began our journey of developing approaches to the teaching of Shakespeare to increase academic attainment and enrich the cultural capital of our learners.
The impact of our relationship with the Royal Shakespeare Company is evident in daily life at Eastbury Community School. There has been an incredible impact of the ‘on your feet, in your head, in your heart’ approach in our classroom; all English teachers now confidently adapt the principles of rehearsal room pedagogy into a number of schemes of learning – not only Shakespeare teaching. It is this which has significantly contributed to the sustained progress in English GCSE attainment over the last two years
At the heart of our mission as a Champion School is that teachers and pupils enjoy and benefit from the teaching and learning of Shakespeare. Underpinning the success of this is a whole school investment in the value of an active pedagogy and a desire by all involved to foster and maintain long term investment in the work. Our continued relationship with the RSC enables us to train staff to deliver a knowledge rich Shakespeare curriculum, using innovative ways to engage students in the language and themes.
Outcomes of Shakespeare learning are also evident in the performance opportunities our students have access too. We have had numerous cohorts of young people perform on stage at the Barbican and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as well as host creative exhibitions within our own school.
Jolaine Foxe, our Head of English has been a lead teacher on the programme and notes that “as a result of the work I am confident that staff are fully equipped to teach Shakespeare and other texts in a way that is engaging and accessible to our students. The use of the RSC endorsed strategies in English classrooms is now commonplace, and the buzz it creates in our corridors is palpable. Students are enthused and excited to bring his plays to life, and in our context, that is something to celebrate.”
Eastbury Community School received received the specially created RSC Artsmark Alliance Platinum award in recognition of its outstanding commitment to cultural education, Shakespeare and live theatre over a number of years.
Find out more about this partnership from this BBC Young Reporter article.
More information about the RSC’s Associate Schools Programme can be found here.
