Arts Council England (ACE) has awarded £150,000 to Shakespeare Week, which will launch on 17 March 2014 with the aim of introducing the poet to primary school children across the UK.
Administered by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the initiative intends to unite schools, museums, galleries, historic houses, theatres, cinemas and libraries in a nationwide celebration of Shakespeare’s creative influence.
ACE’s funding will support Shakespeare Week in 2014 and 2015.
The trust is aiming to raise £500,000 over five years and to engage more than three million children and their families and schools.
The initiative meets criteria set out in the Department for Education’s draft national curriculum for England, which states that “the lives and works of individuals such as Shakespeare” should be taught to primary school pupils.
But other proposals in the draft curriculum have raised concern in the sector.
Leading representatives from the Museums Association, Association of Independent Museums, National Museum Directors’ Council and the Army Museums Ogilby Trust have written an open letter to education secretary Michael Gove.
“The new curriculum plan is in danger of excluding many primary school children from visiting a great museum or heritage site as part of their learning experience,” the letter reads.
“Under the new curriculum, all children up until the age of 11 will be taught almost nothing that happened after the year 1688.
“While some children will be in range of perhaps Roman ruins, or maybe a Tudor House, the majority of places that provide great learning experiences (for example, some 75% of UK independent museums) are rooted in our rich and diverse history of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
“We urge you to adjust the proposals so that we do not exclude young people from these inspirational learning experiences by clinging to too rigid a curriculum proposal.”
Administered by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the initiative intends to unite schools, museums, galleries, historic houses, theatres, cinemas and libraries in a nationwide celebration of Shakespeare’s creative influence.
ACE’s funding will support Shakespeare Week in 2014 and 2015.
The trust is aiming to raise £500,000 over five years and to engage more than three million children and their families and schools.
The initiative meets criteria set out in the Department for Education’s draft national curriculum for England, which states that “the lives and works of individuals such as Shakespeare” should be taught to primary school pupils.
But other proposals in the draft curriculum have raised concern in the sector.
Leading representatives from the Museums Association, Association of Independent Museums, National Museum Directors’ Council and the Army Museums Ogilby Trust have written an open letter to education secretary Michael Gove.
“The new curriculum plan is in danger of excluding many primary school children from visiting a great museum or heritage site as part of their learning experience,” the letter reads.
“Under the new curriculum, all children up until the age of 11 will be taught almost nothing that happened after the year 1688.
“While some children will be in range of perhaps Roman ruins, or maybe a Tudor House, the majority of places that provide great learning experiences (for example, some 75% of UK independent museums) are rooted in our rich and diverse history of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
“We urge you to adjust the proposals so that we do not exclude young people from these inspirational learning experiences by clinging to too rigid a curriculum proposal.”
