Anyone who doubted that primary-aged children from many different cultural backgrounds, living in a highly deprived area of south London, could ever be enthused by Shakespearian English need only spend an hour in a north Southwark school to have their doubts confounded. The Royal National Theatre's Shakespeare in Primary Schools project has opened up a whole new world to children in zone schools through the imaginative use of Romeo and Juliet as a catalyst for literacy, oracy and creative writing combined with artists working in residence in schools. As well as having a genuine impact on children's vocabulary and understanding of language structure, the project has developed reading skills and an enthusiasm for reading in children who had been classified as reluctant readers. It has also inspired children who lacked the motivation or interest to write to produce some excellent pieces of sustained creative writing, often in contemporary idioms.
 
Primary school versions of Shakespeare's speeches

FRIAR LAWRENCE'S LAMENT   A few answers that I need to know   About the suicide of Juliet and Romeo   I need to know what went wrong   I didn't understand a feud so strong,   Did I not pay it enough attention?   Did I just raise the family tension?

TYBALT'S TIRADE   Star crossed lovers?   What must be must be?   Parting is such sweet sorrow eh?   Now you're both down here with me.   Yes, you are living in a fool's paradise   And what's in a name?   Romeo lays dead with the Capulets   Now ain't that a shame?

The North Southwark Education Action Zone's approach is to harness the strengths, resources and potential of north Southwark as a geographically and socially defined locality in meeting its objectives. Thus, it is seeking to draw on the contributions of parents and communities as an essential, rather than a fringe, part of its strategy, on the grounds that the task of raising educational standards is likely to be facilitated if parents and the wider community are supportive of learning. The zone is also building up close relationships with local employers, so that training and employment opportunities in the developing sectors of the local economy are brought within the grasp of local pupils.

In implementing its strategy to improve literacy levels, the zone has pursued the same course of utilising local resources. North Southwark - and the South Bank - boasts a rich array of cultural institutions, which include the Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, the English National Opera, Bayliss Community Programme, the Royal National Theatre, the Southwark Playhouse, the London Bubble Theatre and the British Film Institute. The zone's deliberate and conscious policy of drawing on the specialist experience and expertise of these cultural organisations has led to some very interesting developments in approaches to literacy in the classroom, particularly in developing pupils' writing skills and powers of expression.

The zone has also developed a wide-ranging programme to support literacy with the Southwark Playhouse. A key feature of this collaboration is the provision by the Playhouse of half-term schools. To date, the Playhouse has devised two week-long half-term workshops enabling children from all zone primary schools to take part in movement, drama, dance, creativity and music, all secured within a strong literacy framework and culminating in a public performance to which parents and friends are invited. On each occasion, an audience of around 100 has filled the Playhouse to capacity to share the children's experiences.

Schools report that the outcomes of these half-term schools include parents wanting to become more involved in their children's literacy development. In an area where up to 70 per cent of the population speak English as an additional language, this is seen as a major breakthrough. The Playhouse and the zone have already planned for further half-term schools and for a three-day Easter School.

For zone secondary schools, the Playhouse has provided performances and workshops for GCSE texts including Macbeth, the Old Curiosity Shop and Of Mice and Men. A number of zone primaries also took groups to Macbeth and to the Old Curiosity Shop. The schools then incorporated this experience into their literacy hour planning.

At the other end of the age range, the London Bubble Theatre has brought the Paley storytelling project to the zone's nursery school, its early years centre and three nursery classes, building on the work of the American educationalist Vivian Gussin Paley, with the aim of bringing out the storyteller in every child.

These are just a few examples of a coherent strategy. Work with the Globe and the Tate Modern is already in train, and work with the British Film Institute and English National Opera is being developed. These developments offer the children both an imaginative approach to the requirements of the literacy hour and a stake in their own local cultural organisations. 

Subscribe to Literacy Today