The Merry Wives hiding Falstaff in a laundry basket. (0668555)

THE island’s choolchildren brushed up their acting skills during a visit from drama adviser Andy Kemp.Dr Kemp, who is also a senior lecturer in drama education at the University of Reading, comes to the Bailiwick for five days each year to do training courses and support and advise teachers, who are able to approach him with special projects and invite him to visit their school.

Herm teacher Mary Carey met Dr Kemp two years ago during one of his Shakespeare courses, at a time when she was planning to use the plays for a year-long project. After its success during the past school year, Dr Kemp was eager to visit the school for himself.

‘Every play I initially had in mind they had already covered,’ he said. ‘So we eventually settled on The Merry Wives of Windsor, which was completely new to them. We worked on different acting techniques and as it is quite a funny play, they had a lot of fun doing it.’

Dr Kemp believes that just because Shakespeare has sometimes been perceived as boring school work, it doesn’t mean it can’t in future be taught as a exciting and vibrant subject.

‘I feel it’s most important for teachers to be excited and inspired by the work they are teaching and then they can pass that excitement to the children,’ he said. ‘I would never say all schools should teach this work at primary level, because if the teachers don’t enjoy it, they won’t teach it well. Too many people are brought up thinking Shakespeare is dull because it was taught badly to them. But I’m here to encourage the teachers to put the excitement back into Shakespeare.

‘What Mary has successfully demonstrated is that if you get children excited about a subject, using Shakespeare as an example, so many other subjects can be taught within that framework.

Things as diverse as gardening and electrical circuits have been taught to the school with references to the Shakespeare plays they have enjoyed.’

The workshop took up an entire school day, but the children thoroughly enjoyed it. ‘I thought it would be quite a challenge to teach eight children of different ages for a whole day,’ said Dr Kemp.

‘It’s been a great day and I’m very glad I came, but it was definitely exhausting.’