SHAKESPEARE was brought to life on Wednesday as pupils at The Croft Primary School treaded the boards for a production of The Tempest as part of the school’s annual literacy festival.

The production was managed by a group of year 7 pupils from The Ridgeway School and performed by more than 80 kids from The Croft and was intended to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Amy Knight, assistant principle at The Croft, said: “The kids have absolutely loved it, it’s been such an amazing experience for them.

“They got to meet children from other schools and have made new friends and discovered new things.

“The staff have been engaging with the children and supporting them and the year 7s from Ridgeway have been wonderful. They were so good with the younger kids, we really can’t praise them highly enough.

“It’s all about offering the children more opportunities. Our thinking is that if we can inspire them to become writers or something like that, then that would be great.”

The play, described as ‘Shakespeare in 10 scenes’, was performed in front of the whole school on a brand new, PTA-funded outdoor stage built especially for the occasion.

Fiona Williams, English teacher at Ridgeway, said: “It’s fantastic that all the children have come together and got on with each other so well. They loved dressing up and they all learned their lines brilliantly.

“Shakespeare can be quite difficult to understand in places but the children seemed to have no problems grasping it.”

The school runs several festivals throughout the year and this was the second time they had held a literacy one.

Heather Siebenaller, year 7 teacher at Ridgeway, said: “All the kids loved the challenge and the opportunity to perform on the brand new stage.

“It has been amazing because it’s such a nice way of celebrating Shakespeare’s anniversary.

“Everyone involved has worked really hard it was wonderful to see them cooperating with each other.”

The kids have spent the past four weeks rehearsing, getting the set together and going over their lines.

Jack Panter and Amiee Olley were two of Ridgeway’s Year 7 pupils who helped manage the production. Jack said: “It has been an amazing experience and everyone has worked really well together.

“We all got on well with the younger kids and they were all very well behaved and seemed to pick everything up pretty quick.

“Before we did this I didn’t know much about Shakespeare, except that he was an amazing writer. But now I know a lot more about him.”

Amiee said: “I think it’s gone really well. We’ve all been very impressed with how the little ones have done and it’s been fun working with them.

“It’s been a really valuable experience and I think we’ve all learned something new.”