From The English Department Term 2 2021
Greetings from the English Department!
It’s only the second week of term and already my desk is hidden under a snowfall of loose paper. And we all know what ‘Term 2’ means… the whispers of which flit their way along the corridors in tones of quickened dread… it’s an exam term.
“Honestly, it’s really not that bad!” My biannual refrain seems to bounce off the students like those tiny silver balls used to decorate cakes (not the most creative analogy, I admit, but what else would bounce dramatically pleasingly off a teenager?). Point is, they never do seem to believe me. Rather than inspire dread, I believe an exam term is an exciting challenge! An opportunity to beat your personal best and push the pliable boundaries of our own abilities. However, we’ve still got a few weeks ahead of us and plenty of essays to pen before exams start. So, pop your head down the rabbit hole and take a look at what our students are busy with in English class:
The Year 7’s can only watch as the blisters spread across the palms of poor Stanley Yelnats as he digs those blasted holes at Camp Green Lake. A class project making homemade Sploosh anyone? Although perhaps the season for peaches is over?
Ralph, Jack and Piggy are the constant companions of the Year 8’s this term… and ‘the beast’ of course! We can’t forget about him…or it?
The Year 9’s are wading through their IGCSE Literature short stories and this week covered a particularly satisfying story called ‘The Widow’s Might’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A widow gets the upper hand on her children who, after their father’s death, are quibbling over ‘who gets mom’ and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the lawyer with dad’s will. The students experimented with Blackout Poetry as way to engage with the deeper concerns or themes of the short story. We received some beautiful and insightful submissions; the talent of our students never ceases to warm my heart. Please see the photos accompanying this article.
The Year 11’s are similarly enmired in the wonderfully marshy ground of prescribed short stories (the ‘short’ in short stories being a decidedly subjective term). They have just read a story called ‘Gabriel Ernest’ (Hector Hugh Munro) about a werewolf who, well, does what werewolves do best really.
Our 10’s and 12’s are on a desperate quest for something so rarely experienced in the final year of IGCSE and AS-level – free time. The word ‘revise’ a mantle around their shoulders. Setworks are looking decidedly grubby and overly thumbed, but the sight of their dog-eared books I find oddly reassuring… experience has taught that it’s the pristine-looking copies one needs to be concerned about.
And for now, that’s all from us. If you are looking for the English Department, we are reassuringly close to the library, always within reach of a good book.
Alice Pryor
High School English Department
Some of our students created these amazing poems using the Blackout Poetry technique. [1] Blackout Poetry is a form of “found poetry” where you select specific words from a page of a printed text and then redact all the words you don’t want.
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