Teachers looking to boost their students’ writing skills are invited to join a new research programme led by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
The RSC is one of 11 recipients who will have their research initiatives supported as part of a multi-million-pound investment package, announced this week by the Education Endowment Fund (EEF). The support is given to projects that encourage improvement in children’s writing or maths skills; the projects will be independently assessed in terms of their impact, most especially with regard to those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. Research from the National Literacy Trust shows that nearly half of disadvantaged 11 year olds left primary school unable to write at the expected level.
The RSC’s project, which is called Rehearsal Room Writing, follows on from their previous successful research initiative Time to Act. Their research work so far has demonstrated a link between their ‘rehearsal room’ approach to teaching Shakespeare and an improvement in children's writing and language skills.
RSC Director of Creative Learning and Engagement, Jacqui O’Hanlon, said: ‘We know from the research we’ve conducted that when children embody the action and language of Shakespeare’s plays they make significant progress in oracy, communication, language acquisition and writing. For many educators, constraints on time, funding and resources prevents them from trying new ways of teaching. EEF-funded research provides impartial, trustworthy evidence about teaching approaches that transform young people’s learning. We look forward to embarking on this new research study and are delighted to be working alongside projects that aim to narrow the disadvantage gap.’
Teachers who contribute to the research project will be placed in either an intervention or a control group; those in the intervention group attending five training sessions and then apply the techniques they have learned to their own teaching. Both the control and intervention groups then submit a series of written responses to be independently analysed to assess the impact of the intervention on the children’s attainment and writing skills.
The RSC aims to sign up 200 primary schools to its Rehearsal Room Writing project. Between now and June 2025, they are calling for expressions of interest from Year 5 primary school teachers across England.
For more information about taking part, visit: https://www.rsc.org.uk/learn/research/current-research/rehearsal-room-writing