Scottish schools could find themselves torn between two bards when the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns collides with a campaign to get youngsters thinking about what Shakespeare means to them.

The Royal Shakespeare Company will ask youngsters what the playwright means to them as part of a special week of school assemblies across the country, beginning on January 26, the day after Burns’s birthday.

Primary and secondary schools nationwide are being invited to take part in the Stand Up For Shakespeare Assemblies Week to explore and debate the importance of the Elizabethan Bard from January 26-30.

Schools will be able to download specially created assembly toolkits from the RSC’s Stand Up For Shakespeare website, which tackles the questions: “What has Shakespeare done for us?” and “Why do we still study Shakespeare?”

www.rsc.org.ukstandupforshakespeare.