Headlines By James Saunders 30th April 2021
I would like to end with a quote from Dead Poet’s Society.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream I had the pleasure of popping into English this week. C7’s were in the midst of their introduction to Shakespeare through A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I have fond memories of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as it too was my introduction to Shakespeare. It was a real delight to hear the C7 learners talking so enthusiastically about the characters - the mischievous Puck was always my favourite. Quite a timely introduction to the Bard of Avon considering last week was the anniversary of his birth and death. Contemporary culture is awash with references to Shakespeare; there have been countless reimagining of his plays put into production as films. Many of us may not remember much about the plays but we always recognise the eloquent lines such as “To be or not to be,” or “Wherefore art thou Romeo.” Shakespeare has been a part of the English curriculum for a long time. Parents, like me, will have a marmite like response to the topic - I loved it (although I do hate Marmite). The best way to develop that love is to engage learners with the language of Shakespeare early. Year 10 or 11 is seldom the best time to first encounter the language of Shakespeare. Shakespeare represents an important aspect of a curriculum - the importance of looking back in time at the world and understanding how what went before shaped where we are today. The way we live, think and feel is a result of the thighs that went before. Only by understanding where we have come from and how we got to where we are today can we use that knowledge to build a future for ourselves.
‘We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.’ Final focus for C11 When we return from the weekend, C11’s begin the final element of their GCSE assessment. Having done a fantastic job in their in class assessments they will now be completing the last component of their studies - written papers in the exam hall. Please join me in wishing them the very best over these last few weeks of school. I am confident that they will all go on to lead happy and successful lives. I wish you all a lovely weekend - don’t forget it is Bank Holiday on Monday. I won’t attempt to predict the weather this week as my BBQ call last week didn’t really pan out due to it being freezing. James Saunders
Thanks to Lead Learners: Beth Chapman, Jake Ring and Megan Walby and to former Lead Learners Lily Blute, Charlie Mullenger, Emily Pyatt, Hannah Pyatt and Hannah Read for meeting with Governors this week to talk about Learner Leadership at Honywood. Thanks to our new Lead Learner team who created the video for Year 6 children joining us in September, launching the Pen Pal project. It can be found on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QxCALvddPCg&t=2s and on our Facebook page.