To celebrate Shakespeare Week (24-30th March 2025), we are offering FREE access and a FREE planning webinar for our KS2 Ready Steady Write PLUS+ Shakespeare units until the end of June 2025! These high-quality writing resources bring Shakespeare’s works to life through drama, analysis, and creative writing.

Free Webinar: Tuesday 25th March at 3:45pm: Jo, one of our expert consultants, will be there to help you maximise these units in your classroom. You can express your interest here.

In the meantime, let’s hear more about this Shakespeare collection from our award-winning resource, Ready Steady Write.

Unlocking Shakespeare for KS2 Writers

Bringing Shakespeare into primary schools can feel like a challenge, but Lizzie, one of our Ready Steady Write writers, has helped craft these units to make Shakespeare’s works accessible, engaging and rich in writing opportunities.

“Shakespeare was a pioneer of literature and storytelling,” Lizzie explains. “There aren’t as many resources for primary school teachers looking to introduce his plays, so this was something we wanted to develop for a long time. These units offer something fresh while staying true to our impact-proven Ready Steady Write approach.”

The units introduce children to Shakespeare through engaging, age-appropriate versions of the plays. All 4 units use the same Vehicle Text, A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories. The chosen texts focus on more magical and enchanting stories, ensuring that younger pupils can access the themes and language. Each year group explores a different Shakespeare play through a unique writing outcome:

Year 3 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Potion Recipe Final Writing Outcome
Year 4 – The Tempest – Summoning Narrative Final Writing Outcome
Year 5 – Macbeth – Persuasive Letter Final Writing Outcome
Year 6 – Romeo & Juliet – Diary Entry Final Writing Outcome

A Structured Approach to Shakespeare

The units follow the well-established Ready Steady Write sequence:

✅ Immerse – Drama, discussion, and vocabulary exploration
✅ Analyse – Exploring the text and Writer’s Knowledge
✅ Plan – Developing ideas and structuring writing
✅ Write – Producing a final written outcome

Each unit includes a Story Outline, providing a simple summary of the play so that teachers and pupils can easily refer back to key events. This supports understanding and engagement, especially when working with texts containing multiple characters and plot twists.

The Example Texts, a key feature of Ready Steady Write, demonstrate high-quality writing and are used to explicitly teach grammar, punctuation, and structure through Writer’s Knowledge activities.

Drama, Oracy, and Performance

Since Shakespeare’s works were written for performance, these units embrace drama and oracy. “Drama is central to these units,” says Lizzie. “For example, in Year 3, children create their own magic potion spell inspired by the play. In Year 4, they write a tempest summoning narrative.”

This approach helps bring Shakespeare’s language to life, allowing children to explore emotions, themes, and character motivations before writing.

Making Shakespeare’s Language Accessible

Shakespeare introduced over 1,700 words to the English language – many still in use today. In these units, vocabulary is carefully scaffolded through:

🎨 Illustrated vocabulary banks – Visual word banks to support understanding
📚 Example Texts with ambitious vocabulary – Modelled examples of high-level writing
🖋️ Shakespearean phrases for Year 5 and 6 – Phrases such as ‘not slept one wink’, ‘the be-all and end-all’ and ‘forever and a day’ introduce children to Shakespeare’s legacy in everyday language.

Lizzie explains, “The Vehicle Text we use has beautiful illustrations that make the stories more accessible while keeping the challenge. We’ve struck a balance between making the language ambitious but still understandable for KS2 pupils.”

Support for SEND & EAL Learners

The units include built-in scaffolds to support all learners, particularly SEND and EAL pupils:

✅ Incidental Write Word Banks – These provide sentence starters and key vocabulary to support structured writing.
✅ Illustrated Vocabulary – Helps children visually connect with Shakespearean language.
✅ Story Outlines – A simple reference tool to ensure children can follow the narrative.
✅ Immersion Decorations – Engaging classroom visuals, such as family crests for Romeo and Juliet, to bring Shakespeare’s world to life.

Get Ready for Shakespeare Week!

Sign up today to receive FREE access to our Shakespeare units and reserve your place on our live CPD webinar. These units provide a perfect introduction to Shakespeare’s plays, helping children develop a love for his works while enhancing their writing skills.

Don’t miss out! Click here to register for your free Shakespeare resources

🎭 Unlock Shakespeare for your KS2 writers today!