Wealden Times | WT182 | April 2017 | Gardens supplement inside

Education
likely to be making good progress in maths as well.
Bearing all this in mind it was privilege and a pleasure
recently to visit Springhead Primary School at Talke Pits near
Stoke-on-Trent. The school works with the Royal Shakespeare
Company as a ‘hub’ to encourage Shakespeare being done
actively and enjoyably across the area. I was there to see an
RSC 90 minute production of The Tempest in the school
hall which the children were fizzing with excitement about.
A group from another school joined the audience and both
Gregory Doran, Artistic Director of the RSC and Jacqui
O’Hanlon, Director of Education were there. In the evening
there was a second performance open to the local community.
This very enlightened school – headteacher: Brian Anderson
– devoted the whole of last term to The Tempest. Children
enthusiastically showed me Miranda’s bedroom and Caliban’s
den which they’d created in corridors. They’d also written
stories, painted pictures, explored language, studied the science
and mathematics of storms and the history and geography
behind the play. It was utterly inspirational and just shows
how you can foster the love of learning in a way which really
counts and follow the National Curriculum. It need not be a
banal box ticking exercise. Schools everywhere please note.
Susan Elkin is the author of Encouraging Reading (Continuum,
2008) and Unlocking the Reader in Every Child (Ransom, 2011).
Be all
you can be
St Ed’s is a school where every pupil is connected by a love of learning, the pursuit of possibility and the
challenge of being the very best they can be.
01227 475601 | www.stedmunds.org.uk
Open Morning
Wednesday 10th May, 9.30 - 11.30am
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