Gothic Tales - Our New Anthology for 2013

The edit team is setting up its stall for collecting spells, entrails, stories, poems, music, maps, art - in fact - all things Gothic...

On the left under 'Projects' is a guide for possible content...
But all contributions welcome as pdf, word doc.  








Clearly labelled with your name and year group or your link to the school - staff, alumnus, parent, carer, supplier - all welcome...

Black and white only please!

Anthology Club meets Fridays - 1.15 in Room M106.

Deadlines: - Contributiions 31st March

Edit: - 31st May

EBOOK Launch:- 1st Sept

Hard Copy Launch: - 1st Dec

Year 8 go wild at the Natural History Museum

So what is the connection between Natural History and English? you may rightly ask...
The world around us is something we take for granted - the universe and its structures; the moons and stars and heavens; the natural world and all its creatures....

Literature from the ancient Greeks to Harry Potter reflects man's continual relationship with the natural world. - Where do we come from? Does God exist? Who created all this? How do natural phenomena occur? Why do disasters such as earthquakes happen?

The metaphysical poets were chiefly concerned with man's relationship in the Universe.  Galileo had disturbingly discovered the World was not flat - this threw into consternation the whole idea of everything centring around the Earth and God sitting up in Heaven...Shakespeare, Donne, Swift and Marvell questioned the very existence and nature of God, despite all being part of a society where the Church was a prominent feature of everyday life and Donne himself a high clergyman!

Darwin added even greater chaos with his theories on Evolution - impacting on the Victorian literature of morality and of the supernatural - Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll to name a few....  Creatures from ancient mythology to Alice in Wonderland and Narnia demonstrate our desire to personify human traits in natural or supernatural beasts.  And what about sci-fi and dystopia? These genres too are based on the desire to explore how far science can go...

The Romantic poets and early novelists looked at nature and how that reflects our moods and lives - Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and post-modern writers spend much energy trying to make sense of the universe inside our heads.

The trip was thus a fascinating look at the Darwin centre, the exhibitions of Dinosaurs and the Physical world of earthquakes, volcanoes and the impact of man on the millennia of existence - or rather, the other way around.

So before you become extinct, we recommend a visit!

Thanks to Mrs Warnock and Ms Kanwal.

'Wherefore art thou Romeo?'

...In Stratford....obviously, where 30 year 10 pupils went in search of Romeo and Shakespeare on a sunny October Day....

As part of our understanding Shakespeare's language and context, we went to Shakespeare's birthplace where the girls were given a tour of both the museum and the house where Shakespeare was born and lived until he went to London as an adult to seek his fortune in the theatre. 

We also enjoyed a workshop on the aspects of entertainment for an Elizabethan audience in Romeo and Juliet.  The functions of plays in a religious and violent society were to reflect life and amuse the citizens with light relief.  Audiences went to 'hear' a play rather  than delight in a visual feast and the London audience of  the 1590s was one of the most theatre literate of any age.  Of a population of 300,000, 100,000 Londoners would make their way out of the City walls, past Traitors' Gate, across the river to the liberalising air of Southwark on a regular basis and the theatres would compete for business with the bear pit!

The violence and tragedy taking place in the streets of Verona in Romeo and Juliet reflected the society of the time and the lovesick children caught up in an adult world still rings truths for teenagers today.

Thank you to Mrs Warnock and Mrs Hutchings.
BH

Anthology 2012 - Be Afraid!

Well done to all involved in last year's Anthology which is still available on Amazon and which is being printed as a hard copy text for Christmas - proceeds to local charity.

After half term we shall start on next year's Anthology - which 
will be on the topic of Gothic...
Meetings will start on Friday 16th November in Room M106

If you would like to join the edit team - Be THERE!

Year 8&9 Tread the Bard's Boards...

On Friday 12th October 45 girls wended their way to Southwark for a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre followed by drama workshops from Shakespearean actors who took them through their paces variously on 

A Midsummer Night's Dream 
and Twelfth Night.


The theatre exuded a real majesty which photos can only start to suggest and the golden Autumnal light cast beams of history down the ages to be lapped up...

Thanks to Mrs Warnock for fastidious organisation.  
The trip was a great success.

National Poetry Day is Thursday October 4th...School Finals KS3 Poetry Competition

Update - Yesterday (14th November) our finalists went head to head with students from QE Girls, East Barnet School, Mill Hill County, Totteridge Academy, Friern, St Mary's, St James at the Off by Heart Poetry Finals hosted by East Barnet School.

The standard was extremely high and all the students deserve laurels. The winning pupil was our very own Rachel Price with The Tiger. Well done, Rachel!

The panel of judges included Catherine Gallagher, poet, who treated us to her poem - A Tree on the Underground, before sharing her wise saws on poetry recitation with the competitors.

Rachel recites The Tiger

 

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To prepare for the competion, we held heats in school and the finals of the KS3 Poetry Heats took place in October to celebrate Poetry Day.

A fiercely competitive afternoon was had and the quality of the recitals was extremely high...

The winners who went through to the Barnet Schools Final were: Rachel Price and Caity Shaw.

Caity recites Let Me Not

The runners up were:

Hannah  with Jabberwocky

Verity with Postcard from a Travel Snob
Miku with A Faerie Song
Robyn with Let me Not

Congratulations to all and Thank You to the panels of Judges from both the heats and the finals! 

Off By Heart - Poetry Competition - Years 7-9

National Poetry Day is Thursday October 4th...

To mark this event, pupils in Years 7-9 will be learning poems to recite in class in heats for a final to be held on Thursday October 4th.  The two winning pupils will go forward to represent the school in the LB Barnet inter-school poetry recital competition to be held on Weds 14th November 4.30-5.30, in the library at East Barnet School.

The poetry selection from which pupils should choose one poem to practise and learn are:

1. 'The Road Not Taken' - Robert Frost
2. 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' - Wilfred Owen
3. 'Jabberwocky' - Lewis Carroll
4. 'My Mistress' Eyes' - William Shakespeare
5. 'Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone' - W.H. Auden
6. 'Dulce Et Decorum Est' - Wilfred Owen
7. 'Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds' - William Shakespeare
8. 'To Autumn' - John Keats
9. 'There Came a Wind like a Bugle' - Emily Dickinson
10. 'Valentine' - Carol Ann Duffy
11. Own choice of poem

Marks will be awarded as follows:

Presence & Drama - 10

Expression & Paralinguistics - 10

Clarity & Projection - 10

Overall X Factor - 10

Anthology Now Out...

By Popular Demand, a print run for Christmas is being organised. Order forms are being circulated, but you can order copies by emailing school.  £10 a copy, proceeds to charity...

Exciting News - Released on #Kindle from Mardibooks, The Mount Anthology...order yours here...

A Celebration of Food from the Four Seasons of the World – by The Mount School

A compilation of recipes, poetry, stories and art, celebrating the centrality of food across families, communities, societies, cultures…

‘Whilst the anthology is primarily a recipe book, we wanted to incorporate something more than this. As a TV dinner society it is our generation that is missing out on the sharing and communal aspects of traditional meals….To beautify our creative oeuvres and further titillate your taste buds we have incorporated artwork from across the junior and senior years at the Mount School.’

As a multicultural community, we are proud to have representatives of almost every ethnicity and religion in the world.  Every pupil brings their own tastes and traditions with them and this anthology celebrates that diversity, as the title reflects.

We hope you will enjoy this ebook as much as we do and you find it a source not just of pride but of useful recipes and amusing anecdotes...

DON’T HAVE A KINDLE? YOU CAN READ THESE EBOOKS ON ANY ANDROID, APPLE DEVICE OR PC

• Click for Free Kindle Previewer

Buy the Book:

Mount school anthology available on Amazon now click below link:

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0092F715G

US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0092F715G

Provisional English Trips Schedule 2012-13

English Department trips are designed to support the English curriculum, enriching the girls' contextual knowledge of literature and contemporary theories.  Key to interpreting any literary text is an understanding of Historical, Social, Political and Economic issues at the time of writing.  As modern, multicultural  readers, we can then add our own values and belief systems to the mix, impacting on our appreciation of the text.

Working with other departments to provide a variety of co and cross curricular experiences, demonstrates to the girls how subjects should not be seen in isolation, but as inter-connected and educationally supportive.  For example one should consider the historical context of Shakespeare's theatre in the light of Elizabethan expansionism and post Reformation Anglicanism; or the impact of Galileo on the poetry of the Metaphysicals and the Theories of Darwin and Marx on Victorian and Fin-de-Siecle Literature. 

 Equally, conflict, in terms of World and regional Wars has a huge bearing on the literary outpourings of both the soldiers and the ordinary men and women involved, directly and indirectly.

The above programme should help to bring alive some of the texts and periods we study in English.  Whilst we hope that the programme will be adhered to, there may be unavoidable changes to it during the year.  Letters will be sent out for each individual event.  Additionally, some of the above events take place in school and are designed to develop the girls' skill sets more broadly in reading, writing, speaking and listening, adding to the research skills developed by the trips programme.  

We look forward to an exciting year ahead.  If for any reason your daughter is unable to attend an event, we do hope that you will be able to take her separately.  BH

To find the programme, click here or link at top left.

Buckingham Palace - Year 7 - Queen for A Day

....On July 4th Year 7 went to visit Buckingham Palace to see the Royal Mews, where the State Carriages are kept and then on to the Palace itself where we visited the opulent State Rooms, the Royal Gallery and Diamond Collection and the Royal Gardens.

The visit was fascinating and enabled the girls to see how modern Monarchy works and functions alongside its subjects.

At present Year 7 are studying 'Two Weeks with the Queen' so the trip gave some background to the setting of the novel as well as a more historical context in preparation for Year 8 Literature. 

Unfortunately the Queen was unable to join us for tea as she was in Balmoral.

Anthology 2012 Update...

After a frenzied few months of creation, collection, collation, we have compiled a compelling cornucopia of culinary delights, culled from pupils, parents and staff across the Mount School community for you to sample...

Our year 9 edit team girls have busied themselves in editing contributions of poems, stories, art and of course recipes from around the world.

The publication date for...

'A Celebration of Food from the 

Four Seasons of the World'

...is set for the end of August for a launch at the start of the Autumn term.


The book will be available from September from this link as an e-book from Amazon Kindle and can be downloaded onto kindle, mac or PC or mobile phone hardware, enabling you to have your favourite recipes to hand whilst in the supermarket as well as in the kitchen and your choicest cuts from the poets and storytellers with you to entertain you in idle moments... 

Don't have a kindle? No worries 
- Download Kindle Previewer free here

Well done to all involved!

Advance notice...next year's Anthology
will be on the topic of Gothic...
Watch this Space