WILLIAM Shakespeare's birthday will be celebrated in the city today with a traditional parade and performances by schoolchildren.

Oxford Spires Academy pupils will perform snippets of The Bard's plays to dignitaries in the Lord Mayor's Parlour at Town Hall this morning.

Those dignitaries along with University scholars will then don costumes and parade through the city finishing at the Painted Room in Cornmarket Street - where Shakespeare stayed when it was the Crown Tavern.

The parade will begin outside Town Hall at 11am and is expected to last 15 minutes.