Work of the Week

Y10 have been comparing two texts about travel, in particular how different books written by a comedy actress (Julie Walters) and a Victorian traveller (Isabella Bird) might be.  Rami M made some interesting points about the different authors in his planning below.

Revision

If you get chance to watch any of the ‘Essential English Viewing’ suggested by Mrs Hunt below, why not mind map how these shows and performances link to your key texts, in particular ‘A Christmas Carol’.  There will be plenty of useful context to help you with your AO3 criteria.

Otherwise please remember to utilise GCSE Pod or to watch some videos from Mr Bruff who has some great free revision resources for power and conflict poetry and all the key texts.

Bedrock Shout-outs

The competition for the December awards is heating up… we’ll not publish final results until the first Roundup of the New Year, but at the moment we have 5 students vying for the top spot. All have over 50 points in the last week, so super shout-outs to Maria-Grace (9HD), Esmee (9UA), Hollie (9US), Amelia (9UA) and Fran (9UL). There are about 50 students hot on their heels with many crossing over the threshold to qualify to enter Bedrock’s external competitions, too. Keep it up, Year 9!

Bedrock Words

Don’t forget to look out for our December Bedrock words ‘in the wild’ – so far there have been very few sightings and we’re getting restless! To remind you, the words that qualify for the “words in the wild” competition are (in no particular order):

abundant – adjacent – ornate – enthral – squander – vivid – blatant – cease – scrutiny – subsidise – solitary – retain – prowess – invigorate – pervade.

BookBuzz

The English Department have really enjoyed playing Elves this week, with an early Christmas present of a book for each and every Y9 student. Pictured are some of 9HS, who were so keen to get stuck into their books that they couldn’t resist reading the back covers whilst Mrs H took the photo!

Book Recommendation

Our recommendation this week is Marcus Rashford’s “You Are A Champion.” Chosen by 61 of our students, it was the most popular BookBuzz choice.

It’s described as “an inspiring, positive and practical guide” for young people, covering positive thinking and confidence building.

Essential English viewing over Christmas

Whilst we may not get excited for the delivery of the Christmas TV Times in the way we once did, the English Department have been avidly scanning the TV listings for things to watch over the Christmas break. We strongly recommend:

– Enola Holmes 2 (on Netflix): perfect if you love mystery films, or are a fan of Sherlock Holmes. We challenge you to find the best reference to An Inspector Calls, as well – talk about intertextuality! Other book to film/TV adaptations include The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and His Dark Materials (both BBC1),  with a documentary about the author/illustrator of The Boy, The Mole…  following on BBC2. 

– The Man Who Invented Christmas (on PrimeVideo): the story of Charles Dickens and the way he has influenced our Christmas traditions. Similarly, Miriam’s Very Dickensian Christmas (Channel 4) takes a slightly different angle, with a “Scrooge-like” host exploring Dickens’ influence in a very practical way. Or, head over to Disney+ for the 30th Anniversary extended cut of the Muppet Christmas Carol – remarkably faithful to the text but with bit of Muppet mayhem for good measure. We challenge you not to shout the key quotations out as you watch! All together now… “he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone… a covetous old sinner….” A more serious version is the Gatliss’ one, also available at the cinema, which is showing on BBC4 on Christmas Day. 

– If you have a Sky subscription or access to Now TV, Romeo and Juliet is available on demand. It’s the National Theatre’s production, and well worth a watch.

– If you find yourselves near a Cinema, Mark Gatiss’ stage version of A Christmas Carol has been filmed and just released, or for something a little lighter there’s always Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical.