CHILDREN at Woodside Academy delighted parents with their own versions of three Shakespearean plays: Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, which they performed at the Thameside Theatre in Grays.

The school's Shakespeare Festival on Thursday, 31 March continued the Shakespearean tradition Woodside started at the Thameside in 2014

Initially it was part of the national Shakespeare Schools Festival, alongside Little Thurrock School, Palmer's College and Gable Hall, but in 2019 Woodside hired the theatre for their own exclusive.

Covid-19 meant a break but last week Woodside were back on stage, as academy Principal Edward Caines explains, saying: "We believe the experience of acting in quality drama in a real theatre is something every child should have, not just a selected few.

"As we have three classes making up a year group now we needed our own Shakespeare festival at the theatre to give all our children this life-time opportunity.

"We are very pleased that the Thameside Theatre has stayed open and enabled us to do this. We need a theatre in the borough to give children experiences like this and for so many other reasons."

Woodside Y5 class teacher drama lead Layla Leyland added: "Woodside Academy's Shakespeare Festival has provided our children with an amazing cultural opportunity to perform on a commercial stage in front of an audience.

"They have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process from choosing which play to perform, making decisions on the lighting, music and costumes and designing and making the props.

"We have had wonderful feedback from them and they really engaged with the experience. Some had never performed on a professional stage before and this has provided them with a chance to shine and given them inspiration and confidence to want to perform again."

Each Year 5 class at Woodside takes a Shakespeare play as a basis not only for literacy work but as a starting point to study life in Elizabethan England also visiting the reconstruction of Shakespeare's own the theatre, The Globe in London.

Although they had an abbreviated and partly adapted text children also engaged with the real Shakespearean language, with clear benefits showing through in their own writing.

The week before the performance was also Woodside's annual Shakespeare Week when all the classes had a chance to learn about the work of our most famous playwright.