Can you believe that it’s Easter already?
Romeo & Juliet – East Wichel Community Primary
Some schools have already broken up for the Easter holidays, others are staggering to the finish line this Friday. So, in honour of the Easter hols, below is an Easter Treat courtesy of Bethan and Alisha of East Wichel Community Primary School:
Bethan & Alisha’s Romeo & Juliet Wordsearch
At FINDING THE WILL we’ve had a crazy couple of weeks (thanks to the national celebration of Shakespeare Week) in Swindon, London and Stratford but, with the Easter holidays now upon us, there will be time over the next couple weeks to appraise you of all our most recent activities. For now, I want to focus on three schools, East Wichel Community Primary, Anson Primary and Hampton Junior.
Our first visit to East Wichel Community Primary was a lot of fun. Mark and I spent a week with 95 children from Years 5&6 working towards a performance of ‘Romeo & Juliet’. Let’s just think about this – one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays about love, death and street gangs, not exactly the perfect topics on paper for ten and eleven year olds! However, were they fazed in any way by this? No of course not! And more than that, they showed enormous maturity in performing some tricky moments with great sincerity. As ever, we were struck by the bravery of many of the children. Imagine being ten years old and part of a production, having to speak aloud in front of an audience of well over 80 people, remembering your lines and when to say them and English not being your first language. Amazing courage. Every child spoke and the increase in confidence throughout the week was palpable.
The same applies to the 104 children in Years 3&4 at Anson Primary in Cricklewood (only this time we’re talking children aged 7-9) for, as tragedy unfolded in Wiltshire, yet more was happening in London! Our fifth visit to this wonderful school saw Richard and Maeve working on ‘Hamlet’ with children of all different nationalities working together as one happy family – a real spirit of teamwork. Production values at Anson are always of the highest quality (thanks largely to Mr Waters and Mr Clargo on sound). There was theatrical smoke for the appearance of the ghost of Old King Hamlet on the battlements and check out this backdrop!
Hamlet Backdrop Anson Primary 2017
Finally last week Richard and I were reunited for three days at Hampton Junior where we led workshops on Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet for Years 4, 3 & 5 respectively. Despite a slightly disjointed workshop to accommodate the impending visit of Heston Blumenthal to open the new dining room, the enthusiasm of Year 3 for ‘The Dream’ was not dampened.
Artwork courtesy of St Chrysostom Primary, Manchester
What a pleasure it has been to work once again with some of the nation’s most resilient, courageous and warm-hearted children. I can honestly say, at FINDING THE WILL, we love what we do!
Happy Easter!
