Why we ask 11-year-olds to make Shakespeare films

By Nichola Gotel, Head of English (Bedales Prep)

What happens when you give 11-year-olds one of the most famous plays ever written and ask them not simply to study it, but to make it their own?

At Bedales, we believe children should be trusted with challenging material and given the opportunity to do something meaningful with it. Our Shakespeare film project is one way we put that belief into practice: combining close reading, creative decision-making, collaboration and practical filmmaking to help students discover that difficult texts are not something to be afraid of.

Earlier this year, our Group 3 (Year 6) students spent six weeks adapting, scripting, filming and producing a 40-minute version of Romeo and Juliet, using only the time available to them in their English lessons.

Three days were spent filming with video producer Richard Hadley, followed by two days of editing.

Working in seven production teams, every team had time with a professional cameraman before the footage was brought together into a finished film that we shared with parents at the end of term.

Each year we choose a different Shakespeare play, not because we're trying to create actors, but because we're trying to give children the confidence to read challenging texts with curiosity rather than fear. Shakespeare is a particularly powerful place to begin.

Although the finished product is a film, this has always been an English project rather than a Drama one. The film is simply the vehicle. The real aim is to help children become confident readers of challenging texts.

Shakespeare gives children the opportunity to encounter language that sits outside their everyday experience. Early Modern English can seem daunting at first glance, but I've found that if students approach it in the right way, it quickly becomes something they enjoy rather than something to fear.

Looking back, I think three things made the biggest difference.

The first was making sure students understood the story before asking them to grapple with Shakespeare's words. It's easy to assume that the language is the hardest part, but I've often found that uncertainty about the plot is the bigger barrier. If children know who the characters are, what they want and where the story is heading, they can relax into the language instead of feeling they have to decode every line.

We began with a shortened version of the play, alongside carefully chosen extracts from the original text. We also used the Royal Shakespeare Company's ‘Woosh’ technique, acting out the story through a series of key moments so that the whole narrative became familiar very quickly. Alongside this, we used visual adaptations such as Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (Romeo and Juliet) to reinforce the story in different ways.

Only then did we spend more time with Shakespeare's original language.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was this: although modern translations were always available, most students chose to work from Shakespeare's original language. That surprised some of us, but perhaps it shouldn't have done. Once students understood what was happening, the language became much more accessible. As they adapted scenes for the screenplay, many slipped quite naturally between Shakespeare's words and their own because they genuinely understood what they were saying.

The second part of the project asked them to think differently about storytelling.

Working with Richard, they explored how a play becomes a film. Rather than simply acting scenes, they had to think about camera angles, framing and how visual decisions shape the audience's understanding.

It proved to be one of the more challenging parts of the process. Children may watch films and television, yet creating them requires an entirely different kind of attention. Suddenly they were discussing where a camera should be placed, how sound would be recorded and what an audience would actually see on screen. These conversations developed technical skills, of course, but they also encouraged careful thinking about storytelling itself.

The third ingredient was giving the students as much ownership as we could. The play was divided into seven sections, with each group responsible for adapting its scenes into a screenplay. My role was largely to teach the conventions of screenplay writing, offer feedback and help keep the project moving.

The creative decisions belonged to the students. They debated how to adapt particular scenes, chose locations, organised props and costumes, and managed revisions after receiving feedback.

Like any genuine production, the deadlines were real. Students quickly realised that if one part wasn't ready, the rest of the project couldn't simply wait. There wasn't much rehearsal time either. After half term students returned having learned their lines independently, refined their performances and prepared for filming.

Looking back, it's striking how many different things they learned without them ever feeling like separate lessons. They learned how to format a screenplay. They experienced working with microphones, cameras and professional filming equipment. They learned how editing changes the meaning of a scene. They discovered how much organisation sits behind even a few minutes of finished film.

Along the way there were moments that reminded us just how thoughtful children can be. For example, when we explored Shakespeare's theatre, some of the boys volunteered to play female roles, just as they would have done in Shakespeare's own company. It was briefly amusing before everyone simply accepted it as part of telling the story.

As one parent emailed afterwards:

‘What was most impressive was the ease and confidence of the children themselves. The fact that they could throw themselves into their roles, dress up as any character, and perform knowing that their peers would laugh at the funny moments, without feeling embarrassed or exposed, says so much about the emotional and social security they have. I know that doesn't happen by accident.’

The students had interesting discussions about Shakespeare's more mischievous humour. How much should remain? What makes something appropriate for a school audience? These conversations felt just as valuable as any analysis of character or language because they required children to think carefully about audience and purpose.

They also had great fun incorporating jokes about the price and availability of fuel, McDonald's, KFC and Domino's. Calpol, modern technology and even a ukulele-accompanied rendition of Riptide were also included.

Projects like this inevitably take time. They ask a great deal of both teachers and students, but they also remind us that children are often capable of much more than we expect when we give them ambitious work, clear expectations and genuine responsibility. The finished film is satisfying, but it is really a by-product of something more important: children discovering that they can tackle difficult material, make thoughtful choices and produce something they are proud to share.

That, ultimately, is why we keep coming back to Shakespeare. The aim is not to turn every child into an actor or Shakespeare scholar. It is to develop curious, confident readers who are willing to engage with complexity rather than shy away from it, and to show them that some of the most rewarding things to learn are also the things that initially seem most difficult.

Watch the full film here: Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, by Group 3 (Year 6) | Videos & Movies on Vimeo