Summer Newsletter 2022

418 SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2022 ENGLISH Follow us @Thornleigh_Eng SUMMER TERM IN ENGLISH As we head towards the end of another academic year, it’s nice to take a moment to reflect on the final term of 21 - 22 and think about what marvellous progress our students have made over the past year. Year 7 for example, had an adventurous half term studying poems from across the world, learning about cultures outside their own and using them as springboards for their own creative writing. This half term, our Year 7 classes have been enchanted by the fairies and frolics of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. We can certainly say that this has been a play they’ve enjoyed studying from the top, to the ‘Bottom’! Fo r Year 8, it’s been a wholly dramatic and tense term taking in the delight, fights and kisses goodnight of fair Verona as we studied ‘Romeo and Juliet’ - a romance that we’re all agreed is absolutely to die for! Then from Shakespeare play to U-S-of-A, with the study of John Steinbeck’s classic ‘Of Mice and Men’ or Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Both heart-felt tales revealed the important role of friendship in enduring tough times which really struck a chord with many of us. In Year 9, we finally finished our study of Macbeth - but unlike the tyrannical king, our students never once lost their heads when annotating and deciphering a text that is 400 years old! This half term, an Inspector has called… but we can’t give away any spoilers as we’ve not quite finished it… and that wouldn’t be very responsible, would it? O ur Year 10 students completed their first PPEs, and they were an absolute credit to themselves - they’ve already put their best foot forward to make a positive first step towards a successful Year 11. Not only that, they have regaled us with speeches about topics and subjects and interests that they hold dear as part of their Spoken Language qualification - a set of achievements to be proud of! Speaking of which, we said goodbye to our Year 11 Class of 2022 this term too. Five years of reading and writing, crying and laughing together over books, diaries, stories and speeches finally over. We’d like to say a massive thank you and well done to all of you for your efforts across the last few weeks and also the last few years. We wish you all the best for results day and happiness in your future endeavours! For those of you who we will see again very soon, we leave you with the words of F. Scott-Fitzgerald from The Great Gatsby: “A nd so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” Se e you in September! SHAKESPEARE’S TWELTH NIGHT A group of lucky Year 8 students were given the opportunity to experience an outdoor performance of a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night.’ This took place amongst the beautiful surroundings of historic Rufford Old Hall, a fine Tudor building belonging to the Hesketh family. Th ankfully the rain held off so the students were able to enjoy both the performance and a picnic! Students were entertained by a small cast who performed the contemporary version of ‘Twelfth Night’ which centred around leading characters ‘coupling up’ Love Island style. Ho pefully this experience has inspired our Year 8s to engage with Shakespearean plays knowing that his storylines are not so antiquated after all!