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"Courage & Confidence" | St Madeleine Sophie Barat

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SACRED HEART

CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

Founded in 1905 by the Sacred Heart Society

Celebrating Partnerships Week: Sacred Heart and the Royal Shakespeare Company

3 days ago
2 min read

This Autumn, the RSC marks 20 years of working in partnership with theatres, schools and communities across England through Building Partnerships, a programme of special events and performances.


As part of Building Partnerships, the week of 12th October has been designated Celebrating Partnerships Week in honour of the 17 theatre partners and more than 280 school partners who make up the RSC Associate Schools Programme (ASP) and work tirelessly to make a difference to the lives of thousands of children and young people each year.


Sacred Heart High School is proud to be a Lead Associate School, working in partnership with Northern Stage, schools across the North East and the RSC to transform experiences of Shakespeare, improve life and learning outcomes, and make the arts more accessible. To kick-start Celebrating Partnerships Week, we’re all joining forces to launch the 2026 Associate Schools Programme Impact Report: a celebration of everything that these powerful partnerships have achieved over the past 12 months.


The Associate Schools Programme enables children and young people across the North East to benefit from an arts-rich education and an experience of Shakespeare that is proven to boost language, writing and oracy skills, academic self-concept, critical thinking, wellbeing, belonging and agency.


Highlights in the report show that in 2026:

  • 1,029 teachers took part in professional training led by the RSC and its partners. 100% of teachers surveyed said they felt more confident, better equipped and more able to plan and teach transformative Shakespeare lessons.

  • 11,158 young people and their families saw the RSC's First Encounters: King Lear touring production. 45% watched in a school and 39% were seeing Shakespeare performed live for the first time.

  • This year's annual Playmaking Festival saw more than 5,300 young people perform in 28 festivals across the country.


This year, Sacred Heart students have continued to benefit from these opportunities through participation in the Playmaking Festival, delivered in partnership with Northern Stage. Working with The Tempest, students collaborated with schools from across the region to contribute to a shared performance while developing skills in acting, theatre-making and technical production.



 
 
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