Silver Medal Success in Shakespeare Schools Festival
We are delighted to announce that Mary Hare School has been recognised as a Silver Medal School by the Coram Shakespeare Schools Festival.
Having participated in the festival for five consecutive years, with almost 100 students taking part in that time, Mary Hare has consistently been praised for the hard work and cooperation of our students, as well as the quality of their ensemble work and ability to engage with audiences.
This year, on the Ides of March, some of our Key Stage 3 students performed their version of Julius Caesar at The Lights, Andover. Drama Teacher Tony Trigwell-Jones, who has directed all five of our entries, explains why he introduced the school to the festival in 2017: "The experience of performing Shakespeare is vital to understanding the characters and, realising the timelessness of his plays. The students who take part always make significantly more progress in Drama".
In a recent study by the University of Warwick, it was shown that studying Shakespeare by performing his plays also has a significant impact on outcomes on English grades in Secondary schools. As a cohort of d/Deaf students, who commonly have delayed early language acquisition, anything we can do to accelerate their learning is essential.