The Grand Creative Learning Team have been busy working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and local associate schools to Connect Comfort and Uplift keeping our partnership work thriving during lockdown.

Teachers have been invited to regular zoom meetings to network with our creative learning team and their fabulous colleagues from across Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre. Our Associate Schools programme with the RSC is so resilient that it felt like we were in a room together, albeit a virtual one!

A lock down highlight of this partnership was being able to share an evening with Andrai Zaforaku, International Teacher of the Year, and our friends from the Royal Shakespeare Company Education Team. We felt it was important to say thank you to our teachers and give them an evening that was uplifting and about them as professionals, not about them having to achieve something for their pupils. Throughout our consultations with representatives from Primary, Secondary and special schools it has been overwhelming to see that passion and dedication that all staff have for teaching and their students.

Another brilliant opportunity that we managed to facilitate for Highfield Leadership Academy was a Q & A session about Macbeth with RSC actor; Joseph Kloska. The Year 10 pupils that attended this session asked incredibly insightful questions. The answers Joe gave were really informative and will certainly help the students next year. I think it was Miss Marr and Mrs Gregg that enjoyed the session the most!

Our early years and key worker bubbles in schools have been enjoying story time weekly, with presentations from RSC actors. The outstanding calibre of actors that re-enacted being a box of crayons for our eyes only was genius! This came about from our partnership work with Betterstart Blackpool and our Shakespeare Champion parents. Many families have been tuning in to these entertaining extravaganzas from their own homes.

Finally staff and students have been working hard to keep their love of Shakespeare alive. If circumstances had allowed we would have taken a group of Students to Stratford in July to perform on the RSC stage. Instead of dwelling on what we were missing out on teachers again rose to the occasion and inspired their students to embrace a Digital Playmaking Festival challenge. We have lots of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre schools submissions and we hope some of them will appear on the RSC social media platforms soon.

Our schools and teachers are so special to us all at Blackpool Grand Theatre and we can only congratulate and thank you, for the changes and adaptations you have made to delivery high quality teaching and experiences for all.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Creative Learning Team and future projects contact; joc@blackpoolgrand.co.uk