The Primary Shakespeare Company
Children with PMLD and ASD are some of the hardest to engage. The nature of their disability means that they are rarely offered the chance to participate in outward facing and performative arts activity. Our projects seek to offer a space for them to express and share their unique perspective, whilst their particular needs and approaches to movement and sound making form the basis of the working method and means of performance. It is a chance for an under represented and often ‘invisible’ group of young people to be seen and to share their unique and diverse talents and voices. Projects offer an opportunity for staff and pupils to explore Shakespeare, with guidance and support of a team of specialist arts practitioners from a range of disciplines. We offer a model of how arts practice can be used in a special school context and across a wide-spectrum of disabilities. Multi-sensory and creative approaches to teaching are at the heart of special education, and there is an identified need for staff to explore more diverse ways of working in this way. The recent Rochford Review of special education, echoes and evidences this shift in direction and emphasis. Lastly, our projects offer the chance for children with profound disabilities the chance to be included in the cultural conversation and cultural capital that comes from engaging with Shakespeare.
Working at Wyvern Special School
This short film looks at the work we are doing with Wyvern Special School in Kent.
We create fully inclusive participatory arts projects involving children with a range of complex disabilities. We offer an accessible arts experience for audiences, that has been shaped by the needs of children participating in the project, including those with complex disabilities. We hope to further develop bespoke and innovative approaches to engaging children with complex disabilities and sensory impairments in performance-based arts projects and to introduce Shakespeare to children who would not normally be able to access this work. We aim to encourage and support the inclusion of diverse voices in arts performance and production.
Special Schools
The PSC currently works with several Special Schools, both in our main festival programme and as bespoke whole school projects. Below are our ideas about the work, downloadable reports and a film looking at The Winter's Tale at Wyvern Special School in Kent. If you want to know more about how the projects happen, please contact us via the links below.