This year’s exciting programme is inspired by Shakespeare’s iconic female characters, as part of the SBT’s programme celebrating The Women Who Made Shakespeare. Pupils will explore a range of emotions and feelings, such as empathy through cross curricular activities, including performances influenced by Shakespeare’s First Folio: All the Plays: A Children’s Edition (Children’s Folio), workshops and online assemblies, all drawing inspiration from these remarkable characters.
What to Expect for Shakespeare Week 2025
Shakespeare Week highlights include a day of free workshops for Warwickshire school children, daily online broadcasts from much-loved children’s authors and presenters including Michael Rosen, Ben Cajee and Joanna Adeyinka Burford and a new online exhibition.
Additionally, new cross-curricular digital resources will be published, providing home educators and teachers with invaluable tools to teach Shakespeare in creative outlets, all for free.
Highlights include:
- Monday 24th March, 11am: Watch our online assembly Will and Friends at the Farm featuring Joanna Adeyinka Burford, Ben Cajee and our very own Will Shakespeare puppet! Join them as they learn about some of Shakespeare’s characters, take part in a fabulous fashion show and sing the brand new Shakespeare Week soneg.
- Tuesday 25th March, 11am: An engaging and inspiring poetry workshop from children’s author and poet Michael Rosen. Resources to accompany his broadcast are available on our resources page.
- Wednesday 26th March, 11am: The first of our Shakespeare Week Art School broadcasts with Shakespeare Week patron Marcia Williams. Watch Marcia create fabulous artwork based on Shakespeare’s characters then use the related resources on our website to create your own.
- Thursday 27th March 11am: Shakespeare Week Art School continues with another exciting masterclass from Martin Brown (illustrator of Horrible Histories. These resources will help you create your own masterpiece.
- Friday 28th March 11am: The final Shakespeare Week Art School broadcast is with children’s illustrator, Jane Ray. Watch the video and used the resources on our website to make your own beautiful artwork.
- Friday 28 March: Warwickshire schools open day - a day of free workshops for local school children in partnership with organisations across Stratford-upon-Avon including Shakespeare’s Schoolroom.
- Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 March, 10am to 4pm: Shakespeare Weekender, a free festival of events, activities, workshops and performances on Henley Street, outside of Shakespeare’s Birthplace.
New Resources for Teachers and Home Educators
In addition to the hundreds of free resources already available on the Shakespeare Week website, new resources for this year include language activity booklets, written by Professor David Crystal and Ben Crystal, and illustrated by Marcia Williams. These resources will help explore Shakespeare’s words for emotions and feelings.
Our 2025 interactive online exhibition ‘Are Ye fantastical?’ features some of Shakespeare’s iconic female characters and brings them to life with videos and original artwork, as well as fascinating archive images of characters including Titania and Viola. Children’s illustrators including Jane Ray and Claire Powell have created ‘fantastical’ costume designs for some of Shakespeare’s female characters to inspire children to create their own.
‘’Following an incredible year of celebrations for the 10th anniversary of Shakespeare Week, we are delighted to once again join schools, venues, and partners across the nation for this special event.
‘‘It is important for us to make Shakespeare fun and accessible for children of all abilities. This year, our diverse programme is inspired by Shakespeare’s remarkable female characters. From Viola to Lady Macbeth, their richness and complexity offer fascinating insights into the world we live in and the intricacies of human nature. We are excited to see how children engage with and explore these characters and their emotions through our new resources, activities and costume competition.’’
Commented Sally Gray, Shakespeare Week Project Manager at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.