THIS October pupils from St Helens will take to the stage to bring to life their own creativity and the words of Shakespeare.

Over 4,000 students from the North West will take part in the Shakespeare's Schools Festival and sixteen schools from St Helens will perform their work at The Theatre Royal.

A packed house is expected for the half hour productions that include Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream. 16 theatres will host performances by 150 schools and some 4,000 young actors will make their debut in the country's largest celebration of Shakespeare.

The scheme was piloted in 2000 and moved to London and Wales in 2002. In 2003 the project was taken initially to the South West, West Midlands and Yorkshire. This year the festival arrives in the North West and already has had the biggest take up across the country.

Cheshire Building Society has partnered with the Shakespeare Schools Festival to deliver this programme of activity to the North West.

Kath Cowell, senior corporate social responsibility manager for Cheshire Building Society, said, "As soon as we heard about the fantastic experiences that children from other areas of the country had enjoyed when they took part in the Shakespeare Schools Festival, we knew that we wanted to give children in the North West the same opportunities.

"What better way is there to engage children in literature than to give them the chance to bring to life the words of Shakespeare through their own creative interpretation."