These curriculum resources are just for Teacher-Directors who are participating in our annual Festival, and are available Backstage.

Primary Schemes of Work

English and Citizenship - Democracy and Julius Caesar 

This scheme is part of our 2018 Democracy Season.  It uses the thrilling world of Julius Caesar to take pupils on a journey through Democracy. Pupils investigate:

  • Political parties, elections and government
  • How Shakespeare put persuasive words in the mouth of the politician Mark Antony
  • Different actors' interpretations of the Mark Antony role
  • How to write their own persuasive political speech
  • How to take part in a political campaign and a class election

The scheme allows pupils to become part of the democratic process themselves and campaign for changes to be made that will affect their school lives.

The scheme comes with interactive whiteboard games courtesy of partner Triptico, a full scheme PowerPoint and detailed, fully resourced lesson plans to cover a whole half term of teaching.

English, Citizenship and Philosophy – Trial of Hamlet

This exciting 6 week scheme of work immerses students into the dark and dangerous world of Elsinore, where Hamlet is on trial for the murder of Polonius. It’s a cross curricular scheme covering:

  1. English and Drama: The story, characters and themes of Shakespeare’s Hamlet are brought to life through a combination of drama games and classroom activities, designed to produce excellent written outcomes.
  2. Citizenship: Children are introduced to the exciting world of the criminal court and investigate the roles of the prosecution, defence, judge and jury, leading to a role play of a criminal trial
  3. Philosophy: Through an examination of guilt and moral responsibility, children are encouraged to investigate whether Hamlet is really liable for the murder of Polonius

Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Schemes

English - Shakespeare’s Language

This 6 week scheme of work explores Shakespeare’s language through a combination of drama and text based exercises, with extracts from Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice. It covers:

  1. Language as Words, Tone and Action
  2. Language and Directorial Intent
  3. Language and Rhythm - Iambic pentameter
  4. Language, Imagery and Visualisation
  5. Language of Passion

English and Citizenship - Julius Caesar and Modern Politics 

This secondary resource takes inspiration from Mark Antony's speech at the funeral of Caesar.

It's a great opportunity to mix politics and English language/literature...

It allows pupils to explore the rhetorical devices used by Shakespeare and:

  • compare modern political speeches (e.g. Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can' speech) with Mark Antony's speech
  • consider the political relevance of Julius Caesar to every new generation
  • create their own political speeches using rhetorical devices

Fully resourced over several lessons, with a scheme PowerPoint and several interactive video resources, this provides a stimulating half term focus.

Special School Schemes

Democracy and Citizenship 

This exciting and accessible scheme of work teaches SEND pupils about:

  • how fair decisions are reached
  • how to run a class vote
  • how the country is run

It includes lots of drama activities and extracts from Henry V to show how strong political leaders win over their audiences

Also included is a fantastic social story about the General Election

The scheme allows pupils to become part of the democratic process themselves and campaign for changes to be made that will affect their school lives.

The scheme comes with interactive whiteboard games courtesy of partner Triptico, a full scheme PowerPoint and detailed, fully resourced lesson plans to cover a whole half term of teaching.

The History of Shakespeare's Theatre

This thrilling SEND Secondary scheme of work, designed to run for approximately twenty teaching sessions, takes your SEND pupils on an exciting trip to Shakespeare's disgusting old London, with squelching mud from clattering carts, vile smells and chopped off heads hanging from spikes on London Bridge! When your pupils have found their way into the city, they will become apprentice actors in Shakespeare's Globe theatre, learning about his magical play The Tempest and royal fan Queen Elizabeth!

This 110 page scheme of work includes a host of multi-sensory activities, differentiated experiences and outcomes and online games courtesy of our education partners Triptico. Exclusive extracts from award winning author Susan Cooper's historical story King of Shadows will inspire and excite your pupils.

Also included are some incredible symbol cards, created by Widgit Software, specialists in providing support to learners with language and communication difficulties. The scheme links to history curriculum and social and communication objectives, and is designed to be fun and easy to teach!