Explore texts you are studying on the current school curriculum alongside the lives and writing of the Sidney family of Penshurst Place, via a free booklet and series of workshops. These are funded by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council so are free of charge to schools. For further details contact a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk

The Sidneys letters, poems, prose, and drama provide an enriching context for materials on the curriculum and current concerns (love, war, gender, the environment, religious belief) as well as for EPQ topics for students. The Sidney women writers provide especially exciting contexts for studying Shakespeare and learning about the perspectives of women. (Mary Sidney Herbert’s play Tragedy of Antony is a probable source of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra for example).

The free booklet will offer information about Penshurst Place and each of the Sidney writers and excerpts from their texts which can be photocopied and used in class. Workshops and school visits have inevitably been disrupted by the COVID pandemic but if you would like to hold an online workshop, to show how a piece of Sidney writing can provide empowering contexts for students’ understanding of Shakespeare or other texts on your curriculum, please get in touch with Alison Findlay (Professor at Lancaster University and Chair of the British Shakespeare Association).

Online sessions are free of charge to schools and can be tailored to meet your specific requirements. To discuss a session please contact Alison directly a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk