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Department Reviews

ENGLISH

This has been a year of dramatic changes in the English department. We have embraced both the IB and new AS/A2 with enthusiasm, whilst also having a significant number of teachers new to the department to initiate. Some of them braved the Princess Hall stage for the first time in October for Prayers on National Poetry Day sharing some of their favourite poetry with the school. Thanks to the zeal of the senior prefect and her trusty literary sidekicks Ellen Evans, Katherine Morris and Rachael Sullivan this day was celebrated in great style all over college. There was an event in the amphitheatre during break and wittily apposite quotations in giant font suddenly blossomed on the walls of departmental areas and public spaces. Colourful displays of the girls’ favourite poems appeared in each division and the day culminated in the LC girls reading their own poems, on this year’s theme of ‘work’ and prizes being awarded by Ros Tan and her team.

Our public examination results, especially AS and A2, were excellent and, although we had only two successful Oxbridge applicants this year, we are delighted that so many of our students are still being offered places to read English at departments at other top Universities such as Durham, Warwick, UCL and Bristol.

Our departmental magazine Imprint acts as an attractive showcase for the girls’ creative writing. In Project week, in addition to the exciting LC1 creative enterprise, two professional writers, Alicia Stubbersfield and Jim Friel, ran creative writing workshops for LC2 girls on ‘Structures’, building on their experiences of structures both architectural and natural on their trip to Kew. Literary Society is challenging and democratic: girls offer their own interpretations and evaluations and Miss Bradley encourages detailed readings of the texts in focus and promotes an awareness of intertextuality. Texts discussed this year include Catch-22, Oranges are not the Only Fruit, The Homecoming (Pinter), Poems by Dylan Thomas, Obama’s inauguration speech and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Meetings take place in the Quiet Room and discussions include art, religion, history, literary theory and movements, and cultural mores and are open to all SFC and UC girls.

We continue to support our study of Shakespeare in the classroom, wherever possible, by theatre visits and sessions such as the performance workshops led by Bristol Old Vic youth theatre on our GCSE text Romeo and Juliet. We ingratiated ourselves to SFC girls this year for securing sought-after tickets to the RSC production of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, as well as attending an SFC workshop before the performance. All LC1 were lucky enough to walk down to The Everyman Theatre to see Propeller’s all male interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It proved a revelation!

Departmental Saturday activities enable us to extend the girls’ experience of literature and theatre. Children’s writer Tim Bowler came to talk about his, sometimes, chilling stories to LC1 and 2 in September and, in the Spring term, Emma Harrup from the RSC wardrobe department showed the girls how designers achieve the ‘look’ they want in stage costumes. The girls keenly volunteered to try on garments, armour and underwear which added to the entertainment of the morning. LC3 ‘Cut and Thrust’ stage combat activity, in which the girls are given tips for staging the fights in Shakespeare’s plays, in a practical workshop, has become a popular yearly fixture.

Senior girls not only had the privilege of hearing novelist Rose Tremain give the Principal’s Lecture in April but also enjoyed other after school talks on literary topics such as Virginia Nicholson’s illustrated lecture on her social history Singled Out and Dr Patrick Hayes of St John’s College Oxford addressing the intriguing question What are novels for?

Under the watchful eye of Mr Hole, debating and public speaking continue to flourish, both in internal competitions and national ones. This year Rachel Sullivan and Lauren Daum represented College in the English Speaking Union Mace competition defending the England title won so splendidly by Lauren and Claire Brand last year. They made a sterling defence of the championship becoming South West champions for the third time in the last four years and reaching the England Final once again. Hannah Gladman and Jessica Hart took part in the Midland Schools’ Debating Competition winning through three rounds to reach the final in which they finished third, which was an excellent performance. In the annual CLC Beale Debate held before Christmas Liz Jenkins and Cathy Pitt performed brilliantly to win the Beale trophy for Guild for the first time. Romilly Tahany, Olivia Brown and Stephanie Payne competed in the ESU Public Speaking Competition winning their branch round and reaching the area final in which Olivia was awarded best Chairman.

News

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