Enrichment? Sorry, it's not in the exam.
What if you combined Shakespeare, Elizabethan History and Maths in a single lesson?
14 February 2025
Imagine a school curriculum where all subjects are inter-connected. Imagine a 14-year-old's Shakespeare lessons linking to Elizabethan history, and to the emerging maths of that era (when long multiplication and probability were new ideas!). They'd discover that Shakespeare's dad was the last generation in England that only used Roman numerals when writing numbers. They'd learn that the length of a mile differed depending on whether you lived in Dorset or Hampshire; and that Shakespeare regarded music as a form of mathematics. Do you think this sort of enriched thinking for GCSE would be a "good thing"? History, English and Maths in a single lesson? Three for the price of one? Or is this just a distraction that dilutes the curriculum and might damage exam results?
On March 5th, I'm doing a cross-curricular Much Ado About Numbers show at the wonderful Storyhouse Theatre in Chester (details here https://mathsinspiration.com/much-ado-spring-2025). About 300 teenagers will be attending, which is great.
But there’s a worrying pattern. The bookings are almost exclusively from independent schools. This is despite offering several local comprehensive schools around Chester FREE seats and even bursaries to pay for cover. Most schools haven't even replied.
For a similar (afternoon) show elsewhere I did get one response from a school’s Head Of Curriculum (an English teacher), which might indicate what others think too. The school is ten minutes walk from the venue and they would only have missed a single lesson. But their response was:
"We don't have capacity to take Year 10 out for a non-exam text at this time."
I’m not sure what "capacity" means here, but "non-exam text" suggests that Year 10s can’t even spare a single lesson for anything that isn’t directly training pupils for the specific Shakespeare play they’re studying for GCSE. The school appears to think there isn't much (GCSE) value in getting a wider view of Shakespeare’s world, and the fact that the show also ticks Elizabethan History and Maths boxes clearly carries little weight.
Yes I know most state schools are really stretched at the moment, and I know it can take a huge amount of effort to arrange anything for under-16s that involves going out of school. But when it comes to enrichment, why should private schools get all the fun?
* Note: we set aside 100 free or heavily subsidised seats for targeted comprehensive schools in Chester and Liverpool for whom cost would be a significant barrier.
1 of 152 Older