Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, may I introduce to you – William Shakespeare! Year 6 had a day full of Drama, dance and writing during their Shakespeare day this week.

The day began with a bang, with a visit from the great bard himself; London’s most prolific playwright. The only problem was, Shakespeare was having writer’s block and needed help to write his next play. Luckily for him, the children were on hand to offer their creative juices and successfully wrote part of a new play; the little known Macbeth! Following a performance by our Bard in the Yard with all of Year 6, the children worked in smaller workshops to enhance and develop the morning’s performance. Exploring the famous scene where Macbeth, in his turmoiled state, sees a dagger floating in front of him, the children learnt the Shakespearian language and interpret it into modern-day speech. They learnt their lines by heart and pieced together a scene.

The next activity was working in pairs, synchronizing body movements to music, where concentration and teamwork were vital, relating it to time on the stage and not hogging the limelight for too long! Next was mirror movements, standing in a circle, feet forward, twisting hips and clapping to the person on your left, passing it around the circle. Not as easy as it sounds to keep the rhythm going, especially when you speed up – try it at home! They relaxed and warmed up their face muscles by rubbing their cheeks, doing horse blows, pumpkin head and raisin face, and counting from one to ten, getting louder with each number – what is the correct number for performance? We decided six or seven; any lower and it was too quiet, with the higher ones being too loud. The workshop finale was performing our Macbeth dagger scene in one coherent move. What a fabulous, thespian-filled day!