The RSC Summer School was originally conceived as a week-long course for teachers of English in English schools. The first one took place in August 1948 in the British Council Centre, now the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. With its lecture hall, conservatory and beautiful garden it has always been the ideal venue. It was intended to be a refresher to teachers of Shakespeare, to introduce them to current scholarship and to discuss the teaching of Shakespeare in schools.

The summer schools have continued annually, many participants returning year after year. Although the format of morning lectures and evening visits to the theatre has remained the same, the emphasis has changed: in the first years few of the speakers had any connection with the theatre, even though the event was organised by the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. Nowadays most of the lectures are directly related to plays in the repertoire, and may be given by actors or directors themselves.