'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!