Reading Rhapsody
Year 7’s kicked off the celebration on Monday 11th March and what an opening they had! We were delighted to welcome back former pupil Jennifer Smedley who engaged students by reading aspects of her novel “Snofjell” and sharing her authorial experiences. The students had a wondrous time with Jennifer and her heart-warming approach to the students, was incredibly endearing. The college also had the very talented AS Creatives working with our students, looking at writing and bringing it to life through drama and a range of pioneering and lively workshops.
On Tuesday 12th March the college saw the Year 9s undertake a range of innovative workshops, ‘Macbeth in 90 minutes,’ whereby the students performed snap shots of the play they are currently studying, in an energetic and dynamic way and solving fictional crimes in a vivacious manner in a ‘Reading Between the Lines workshop,’ which also coincided with the Literacy KS3 Assessment Focuses. The students were enthralled with all the activities and we were particularly impressed by some of the spectacular performances by our students in the Macbeth workshop.
On Wednesday 13th March it was Year 8’s turn and what an extraordinary day they had! They had an array of workshops delivered throughout the course of the day: SLAMbassadors delivered a session on poetry and rap and one student has now entered their rap into SLAMbassadors national competition, Soundscape Poetry came in and offered a unique experience in exploring poetry using an orchestra of sound to create a melody of music. The college was incredibly privileged to have the very gifted Mark Gwynne Jones visiting, who performed some of his poetry work to the students and inspired them with his interactive games of metaphor and imagination.
Finally, on the last day to commemorate reading week, the Year 10s had a Shiverpool experience. The students watched a spine-chilling performance centralised around Liverpool in the 19th Century. Students then attended a series of workshops on: exploring characters in texts, skills in building up tension and suspense in writing and a unique experience in looking at the art of theatre make-up.
All the students thoroughly enjoyed the event and a compilation film of the weeklong celebration will be uploaded to the website very soon!
The English Department are particularly proud of this celebration and the diligence from all the students and staff. We hope this celebration is the first of many and Reading Week continues year on year to encourage the love of reading to our students and school community.
