Pupils from Royds Hall Community School joined young people from across the UK at Downing Street to celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare.

Together with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a group of children aged from five to 16 from five schools performed extracts from some of Shakespeare’s most popular plays. These included Twelfth Night, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth and Julius Caesar.

The children performed alongside actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company including David Caves, Richard Cordery, Marty Cruikshank, Lisa Dillon, Nicholas Goode and Evelyn Miller.

The performance was the culmination of a day of activity which saw more than a hundred young people from 11 schools across the UK take park in workshops based on Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.

Royds Hall librarian Clare Ackroyd said: “The pupils took part in a workshop in the study and then had question and answer sessions with Prime Minister David Cameron and Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney. It involved learning abou the different kinds of Shakespearean leaders from those who are strong to passive ones. The best question one of our pupils asked Mr Cameron was who in the Conservative Party has the best banter. He said it was Boris Johnson.

“It’s so impressive inside Number 10 and we had a tour round some of the rooms, but only saw the tip of the iceberg.”

Mr Cameron said: “I was delighted to welcome schools from across the country into Downing Street to celebrate Shakespeare’s extraordinary legacy.

Royds Hall School at the door of number 10. 10 Downing Street held an event today to mark 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare. The Royal Shakespeare Company held workshops for school children within ten Downing Street. This was followed by a performance in the Garden of Number 10. The Prime Minister David Cameron dropped in to see the workshops, as well as to watch an evening performance held in the garden of 10 Downing Street.

“The brilliant outreach work of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Schools Festival is bringing his works to life for young people; raising aspirations and improving educational attainment.

“All around the globe, in this special anniversary year, the ‘Shakespeare Lives’ programme is celebrating the enduring influence of our greatest playwright.”

RSC Director of Education Jacqui O’Hanlon said: “Shakespeare always has something to say to us. His plays touch on all human emotion experienced in everyday life and they encourage us to reflect on the world we live in, helping us to understand each other and ourselves.

“We have seen the impact that our work with schools has had on the aspirations of young people all over the country. We use approaches drawn from our rehearsal rooms to bring Shakespeare’s plays to life in the classroom and in performance. We are privileged to see the results for individual students, whole schools and communities when we all share in the inheritance of Shakespeare’s plays.

“Our aim is to inspire children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, ensuring that Shakespeare is for the many rather than the few. This event is the perfect way to celebrate the powerful alchemy that happens when teachers, young people and communities work in partnership with us or SSF; partnerships forged out of a shared vision for education in which access to the arts plays a central part.”