Re your feature on As You Like It with CBeebies at the Globe theatre in London (‘I’d crawl over broken glass to work here’: CBeebies take on Shakespeare, 9 August), when I was a primary teacher at a small school, we wrote, directed and produced a whole-school Christmas play/musical/pantomime every year, based on Shakespeare’s works. The casting was completely inclusive: every child in the school had a part, often written especially for them. Each play had original songs set to familiar tunes and a pantomime horse that resembled Eeyore. Some admittedly worked better than others: Macbeth the Panto was a great hit; Hamlet went on too long.
We did 11 plays altogether, from 2002 to 2012. Our final production was Antony and Cleopatra. In the programme, we wrote: “As children progress from playing beans, mice, fairies, etc in reception, to delivering long speeches in Shakespeare’s beautiful language in year 6, they develop their skills and self-confidence … giving their best effort to produce something they will remember with pride for many years. Children leave our school believing that Shakespeare’s plays are accessible and fun … and always include a big blue donkey.”
That was our last Shakespeare play because by then Michael Gove, Ofsted and a new management team demanded that every minute of children’s learning had to be target-driven, assessed and accountable. They got rid of the experienced teachers who had spent their careers trying to inspire children and open their minds to a world of learning beyond the narrow curriculum.
I applaud the CBeebies team for trying to enrich the lives of our children; how unfortunate that their schools and their government want them to grow up with their entire focus on passing exams and only studying for degrees that will enhance their earning potential.
Doreen Worthington
Lincoln
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
