To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio, primary school aged children from across the country were invited to create their own Shakespeare-inspired book.
The competition was open to school children in two age categories, 4-7 and 8-11. With over a 1,000 entries from children in Reception to Year 6 and only a few individual places plus two overall school winners – the competition was tough.
Felsted Prep pupils let their creativity run; their entries included a wide variety of book styles including Shakespearean plays, short stories, poems, puzzle books, ‘Terrible Tudor’ joke books, costume design books, cookery books, and books telling Shakespeare’s life story. Their efforts gained them an impressive 5 places among the 18 winners – including the overall winner in the 8-11 years category, Harriet, aged 10. Pupils from Felsted also placed a runner-up and two highly commended students in the 8–11 category, and a runner-up for the 4-7 years category.
‘Write till your ink be dry’, the creative bookmaking competition for Shakespeare Week 2023 was organised by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and features inspiration from several well-known children’s figures including children’s authors Michael Rosen, Marcia Williams and Martin Brown who all created their own home-made books to encourage children to enter the competition.
In recognition of the imaginative and creative work of the school in general, Felsted Prep also received the ‘highly commended’ certificate for the school as a whole. Felsted English Teacher, Helen Boroughs commented: “What a fantastic achievement that Felsted Prep has accomplished. I am so proud of all of the entries and genres that were covered. I am even more thrilled that five of our pupils successfully placed. All pupils worked independently and demonstrated equal amounts of perseverance and creativity to produce their final masterpiece.”
Each of the winners received a bundle of Shakespeare themed goodies, art materials, books and a personal letter of congratulations. Of Harriet’s book (a collection of facts, jokes, poems and artwork about Shakespeare) the judges commented that her creative response was “extremely original and joyous”. Harriet enjoyed the process of making her book; “I enjoyed being creative with my nanny, we went to the woods to find the wildflowers and feather, she showed me how to press the flowers and we attached the feather as a quill and bookmark”.
The judges also commended runner-up Edward, the youngest Felstedian winner at age 5, describing Edward’s book about his two favourite Shakespearean plays, as ‘delightful’ and congratulated him on having learnt lots about Shakespeare’s characters. Edward commented; ‘I drew my favourite characters like Puck, Bottom, Titania and Oberon. I felt creative when I made my Shakespeare book. I feel proud of myself’.
The winners’ work will be displayed alongside responses from well-known children’s figures in an online exhibition hosted on the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust website.
Felsted, an independent boarding and day school in North Essex for boys and girls aged four to 18, was founded in the same year Shakespeare was born, in 1564, and, like Shakespeare’s work, the school is still going strong as it enters its 460th year having recently won Boarding School of the Year 2023 at the TES Schools Awards in June.
Categories: Felsted School School News
