Midsummer Madness

Some people think that Shakespeare’s plays have no place on the Curriculum – especially for children with SEN or who may have missed key aspects of learning. 

BHS and GSH tutor groups want to show that those people are wrong – here’s what they learnt whilst studying the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream  in English and Drama…

• The history of the English Language. They also found out that whilst being a bit tricky to get to grips with, the Elizabethan English language is actually considered ‘Early MODERN English’.
• Nobody was as good as insults as the Elizabethan’s were (and we had jolly good fun replicating some of them!).
• If you can’t think of the right word – invent one! That’s what Shakespeare did. He is credited with the invention or introduction of over 1,700 words that are still used in English today.
• Spelling – some children get so hung up on the correct spelling of a word, they can’t write anything down. We learnt that spelling wasn’t ‘standardised’ for 100’s of years. Before that people just had a go.  And that’s just what we’re going to do.
• Relationships – All the tricky things that go on in relationships have been happening for hundreds of years – not just to us now! Sometimes we like the wrong person, sometimes we get tricked or manipulated and, we all fall in love at some point (or think we do). Sometimes its complicated and we need to talk things through to work it out and be honest with ourselves and each other!
  • We can give Shakespeares plays a modern and relevant twist for all sorts of audiences – check out our ‘shorts’ videos by using the QR code at the bottom of this article (chosen, filmed and directed by the children).
  • We can make links between the setting of the play and the areas around our school to help us set the scene.
  • We can use computers to carry out research.
  • We can work as a team or take on key roles to produce our work.
  • We can figure out how plays like A Midsummer Night’s Dream have helped to shape fairy tales and modern fantasy stories, identify key themes and items and use these to write our own fantasy stories.
  • How to act like we are in love with a Donkey!

The children in BHS and GSH groups have worked incredibly hard and produced some excellent work.  You will be able to view the short form videos on our YouTube channel soon, and can check out some of the amazing creative writing in this newsletter.