Christmas Card #20 – Help! We need YOUR design!
Too early to talk about Christmas? Scarily, it’s only 11 weeks away! Here at Finding the Will, we want to make this year’s Christmas Card even more special. Why? Because this is our 20th anniversary year. So we want YOU to design it! What Christmas design are we looking for? We are open to anything! Below (and above) you will see examples of past Christmas cards. Some have been inspired by children’s drawings and writing; some by props made by children; some by bits of set made by teachers, even one by a special Twelfth Night themed menu! Who can enter? Absolutely anybody! Staff, children, governors, friends, families – all are welcome! We may not have worked with you recently – that doesn’t matter. If we have crossed paths in any shape or form in the last 20 years, you are in with a chance! More to the point, we would love to hear from you. Conditions of Entry The image must have something to do with Shakespeare or one of the following plays: MACBETH; THE TEMPEST; A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM; ROMEO & JULIET; TWELFTH NIGHT; HAMLET. If you wish to add a Christmas Greeting to your image, that is entirely up to you, however it is not necessary. The artist and/or school will be credited. The image will be used on our social media pages. The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2026. All submissions should be sent by email to jules@findingthewill.com. The winning entry The winning entry will be chosen by me and an exclusive panel including Father Christmas! The card will be printed with a credit to the artist and/or the name of the school. It will be sent to all schools we have worked with in 2026 and are going to work with in 2027. A digital version will be sent to everyone who takes part. 20 years of Us! We know that the Autumn term is extremely busy. We don’t want to add to your long list of activities but we would really like you to be involved in this special year for Finding the Will. If anyone had said to Richard or me back in 2007, that we would work with 40000 young people in the UK and beyond over the course of the next 20 years, we would never have believed them! And yet here we are. So please celebrate with us throughout this academic year. If Christmas cards are not your thing, then consider leaving us a Google review by following this QR Code: While the Autumn term is in full swing in schools, Finding the Will is gearing up for some gentle work in November. Nick is heading back to King Henry VIII School in Coventry to do ROMEO & JULIET with Y5; and we will both be leading workshops on THE TEMPEST for the UK charity Heart Heroes in Bristol and Gloucester. We are looking forward to kicking off 2027 with A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at Great Leighs Primary in Essex in the first week of the new year. It will be our 8th visit to this fabulous school. For now though, we are waiting with bated breath for your Christmas card submissions. Let the games begin!
Goodbye to 1370 joyous children? Surely not!
Read on to discover why we’re saying goodbye to Ffion (for now) and why Jules has said goodbye to live public performance.
Malvolio’s Recipes for Revenge
Y5 at St Michael’s Junior, Chelmsford did some cracking follow up work to our Interactive Workshop on TWELFTH NIGHT. There were so many lovely recipes to choose from, it was hard to pick just 4! You can dip in and out or watch all 4.
How To Get Revenge (in 4 easy recipes)!
Revenge! We all know it’s a dish best served cold. However, Year 5 at St Michael’s Junior, Chelmsford – with whom we worked in January – has taken Malvolio’s Revenge to a whole new level! I was delighted to receive in the post a package of truly amazing pieces of work off the back of our Interactive TWELFTH NIGHT Workshops, and I felt I couldn’t simply file them away. It was difficult to pick just four of the extraordinary Recipes for Revenge because they were all so good. So dip into this short video for a taste of what it’s like to be 9 or 10 with revenge on your mind….. Huge thanks to Mrs Orton and Mr Archer for sharing this incredible work with me. St Botolph’s C of E Primary, Peterborough Honestly, you go years without a doing a TWELFTH NIGHT workshop and then 9 come along at once! After the 5 that we ran in January, 4 more came along in February starting with 2 at St Botolph’s C of E Primary in Peterborough to kick off a Project Week. And revenge was still on the menu! We are lucky enough to visit this lovely school every two years, each time bringing a different Project Week for Years 5&6 to get stuck into. From the tragedy of MACBETH 2 years ago, to the craziness of TWELFTH NIGHT, this really was the sublime to the ridiculous! As always, Fay and I began the week with the Interactive Workshop. To add to your collection of potential chat up lines (see last month’s blog for more sure fire hits!) I give you: “Your eyes are like fireworks!” And if that doesn’t float your boat, hang fire, there are more coming later! Following the workshops, we launched into 3 days of rehearsals before putting it all together on Friday morning. It’s always a little fraught when all 120 actors gather in the hall for the first time. There’s the handing out of props and ensuring everyone has all that they need. And then there are the unexpected absences…..It’s really disappointing for the actors when illness strikes and, after all their work, they are unable to be in school. This time we lost two Sir Toby Belches (too much cakes and ale?). However, some brave souls stepped into the breach and took over at the eleventh hour. That’s the joy of this work, it’s not all about Shakespeare, it’s more about teamwork, focus and raising levels of confidence and self-esteem. There were some terrific performances too. From a lounging, yellow-stockinged Malvolio and a stylish, frankly frightening, Lady Olivia, to servants and sailors who were always reliable and solid, the final performance was all we could have wished for. So take another bow Years 5 & 6 and travel safely on as Shakespeare Ambassadors. Huge thanks to Mr Joyce (our in-house DJ, to whom Fay and I are indebted), plus Miss Pickard and the Friends of St Botolph’s, without whom the week would not have been possible. Shellingford Primary, Oxfordshire I was last at Shellingford Primary two years ago, so it was a delight to be invited back. This is a small rural school where the mixed classes meant I could take the whole of KS2 through TWELFTH NIGHT in two workshops last week. The school does not shy away from Shakespeare as KS1 focuses on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and KS2 on MACBETH. So it was great fun to introduce them to this ‘unknown’ romp! The darker side of the play – the revenge on Malvolio for spoiling Sir Toby’s party which tips over into bullying – provoked some thoughtful discussion (to be continued in class possibly). Whilst initially we all thought it was hilarious and what he deserved, on further exploration, we concluded that perhaps it was a bit much. “He only spoiled a party after all”. The trouble is that once the Revenge truck is rolling, it just keeps gathering momentum. So when Malvolio yells at the end “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”, you find yourself secretly hoping that he does. With the question of how Malvolio might get his revenge ringing in their ears, one young imaginative mind suggested to me that Malvolio could murder Maria. I feel a sequel coming on – TWELFTH NIGHT 2 or perhaps THIRTEENTH NIGHT……. Finally, a couple more suggestions for your little book of useful chat up lines courtesy of Classes 3&4: “Your eyes sparkle like the sun” or “Your eyes are like pools of chocolate” (not bad eh?) Enormous thanks to Mrs Roberts and Mrs Ashdown for liaising with me – hope to see you again in another couple of years! Looking forward… Onward into March then and we are Essex-bound once more. Nick and I are heading back to Chelmsford to visit a school new to Finding the Will – St Cedd’s. We’ll be leading workshops on THE TEMPEST and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM there. Later in the month I am revisiting St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary in Birmingham to lead Years 5&6 through A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and MACBETH. So, a bit more revenge to play out in both locations but, as we all know, revenge makes the best drama! I’ll let you know what the Whirligig of Time brings in, next month!
4 Amazing Ways to get through January!
So that’s how we got through long January. 4 different plays, 12 workshops, 1 Project Week and just over 400 young people. Not a bad start to the year eh?
1770 children love Shakespeare – true or false?
This year Finding the Will has worked with 1770 children introducing them to five of Shakespeare’s best known plays.
Bet you’ve never had a welcome like this!
“Welcome to my office.” These were the words that greeted me when I fell out of a plane at 15000ft!
“We’ll strive to please you” – and guess what?!
At the end of the day, rehearsing a production of TWELFTH NIGHT in 3.5 days is a big ask. Asking 90 eight and nine year olds to do it is an even bigger ask.
2024 – How was it for you?
End of 2024 – how was it for you? I can’t believe we have reached the end of the year already, but here we are. Thank you for finding the will and wherewithal to work with us for us another incredible year.
Happy Summer Holidays!
A quick count up shows that during the last 10 months we’ve worked with approximately 1000 children ranging in age from 4 – 16.
We’ve covered the country from Merthyr Tydfil to Peterborough, Southampton to Yorkshire and all sorts of places in between!