A GROUP of school children have been awarded a prize for promoting Shakespeare.

The Year 6 pupils from Branksome Heath Middle School in Parkstone have been told they are the first primary school children ever to win a marketing prize in the Schools’ Shakespeare Festival.

Pupils took part in the national festival last term, performing Macbeth at Poole’s Lighthouse.

Since not everyone could be on stage, a group worked up the advertising and marketing campaign that earned the award.

Teacher Clare Collins worked on the marketing and advertising with the help of colleague Greg West.

She said: “We did this project as a way of getting children needing support for literacy to be more involved and engaged with writing.

“We felt that this would give children a purpose for their writing and improve their levels.

“It was particularly aimed at boys and we also used Mr West’s experience from his previous occupation in marketing and advertising before becoming a teacher.”

Children took on roles as photographer, researchers, typists, presenters, graphic designers, designers, document editors and artistic co-ordinators.

They created a 40-page portfolio of their work and research.

The youngsters who were involved in the Shakespeare festival project were: Jacob Sylvester, Drew Hardy, Kieran Hart, Jade Cashin, Luke Randall, Losh Payne, Max Eyers, Kieran James, Charlie Norhbrooke, Billy Saunders, Cersten Cauvin, Kevin Pechacek, Luke Dennis, Tyler Frampton, Jamie Riggs, Abi Gibson, Harriet Ward, Joshua Lee and Jordan Smith.