School Matters 36

10

WORLD BOOK DAY It was wonderful to be able to celebrate World Book Day together in person after being locked down this time last year. Pupils received a £1 book token, and many claimed a free mini thriller by Sophie McKenzie or Sharna Jackson. Over 50 pupils entered the World Book Day Treasure Hunt racing around outside to collect nine literary clues. Congratulations to Senior 7 pupils Elyssa Culligan, Gabriela De Wasseige, Chloe Downes and Katerina Margoni, the first to finish and solve the anagram to reveal IPS’ Book of 2021, Chinglish by Sue Cheung. A number of pupils discovered the calming joy of Zentangle, making a personalised bookmark or joined in with judging the Excelsior Book Award, the only graphic novel book award for children. This was just the first chapter: World Book Day kicked off our month-long festival of stories, ‘IPS Bookfest’. The programme continued with our Masked Reader Competition, followed by author events and creative competitions, Design a School Bookmark and Bookface. [For more on all those, see the next issue – Ed.] Happy reading! Ms Helen Cleaves, Librarian

THE SPEAKERS TRUST AT IPS The English Faculty was delighted to welcome Ore Ogungbayi from the Speakers Trust, to help build S10 pupils’ confidence in expressing themselves verbally. Ore explained that public speaking is not just an academic skill, it is a skill for life. From her extensive experience of working with pupils in schools, Ore inspired by assuring S10 that all young people have stories to tell the world, and that their words are powerful. Ore’s own personal story, which she recounts in her book Knocked 4 Six: Going from Hopeless to Hopeful , proves exactly this. Truly practising what she preaches, Ore’s talk was spellbinding. She built pupils’ confidence through her personal anecdotes, her warm humour, and her wise practical advice. With GCSE Spoken Language assessments on the horizon, pupils enjoyed an immediate opportunity to discover their own voice and purpose, energised by Ore’s uplifting message.

LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH IN ENGLISH To mark LGBT+ History Month, pupils in English lessons engaged with a wide range of activities to explore literary representations of gender and sexuality. Senior 7 devised an additional final scene to Shakespeare’s As You Like It , seeking to resolve the unsatisfactory ending given to Phoebe who was in love with Rosalind but has had to make do with Silvius. For inspiration, pupils explored Northern Broadsides’ queer presentation of the play, and discussed the importance of this representation and celebration within theatre. Senior 9 pupils did the same with Much Ado About Nothing : they were asked to imagine that they were theatre directors putting on a queer production. They devised character representations that challenged stereotypes of gender and sexuality. The groups also studied Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20, ‘A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted’, which inspired conversations about the different forms of love. Discussion centred around androgyny, gender and homosexuality. The English Faculty was hugely impressed with pupils’ enthusiastic and engaged responses. Dr Anna Cairns, Head of English

Mrs McBride reports, “Rainbow laces for IPS boots and trainers have arrived!”