Year 8 & 9 Trip to Bonn:- Page 18

LIBRARY NEWS

Welcome, Miss Teixeira!

This Autumn was made particularly exciting by the arrival of Miss Teixeira, our new North Site-based Assistant Librarian. Miss Teixeira is both Brazilian and Portuguese and studied History at The University of Oxford before she starting working at Cherwell. Visit the Fiction Library for any book recommendations, to read in silence or simply to say hello. Don’t miss, Miss Teixeira’s book recommendations and news on Instagram: @Northsitelib (photo of Miss Teixeira)

Happy birthday Fiction Library!

A year ago, our North Site fiction library opened! We can never thank the Friends of Cherwell enough: it is thanks to their donations that this beautiful place and its book collections were funded. We will celebrated the library’s first birthday on Thursday 15th December (lunchtime) with cakes, music and, of course, wonderful books.

We are an outstandingly generous school

Every year, during our Festival of Reading, we encourage the South Site students to take part in Readathon, a reading marathon to raise money for children in UK hospitals. This year, in particular, we have raised £972.39, our new record! Read for Good, the charity that sponsors Readathon, has contacted us to congratulate and to announce that The Cherwell School is one of the strongest Readathon participants in the nation. We would like to thank all the students who have made this possible, as well as their families. We are particularly proud of the fact that this outstanding result has been reached by involving a very high number of students. No donation is too small for Readathon; unity is strength. However large or small the sum you raised was, thank you.

Manga Book Club

Between November and December, the members of the Comic Book and Manga Club took part in a competition for young comic strip artists promoted by The Reading Zone. The participants worked for hours to develop their comic strips and the results are beautiful!

South and North Site Book Clubs

This is a particularly thrilling time of the year for the Book Clubs, as we are organising the Festival of Reading that will take place between February and March. Books are being selected for the library lesson discussions, authors are being contacted, and workshops and games are being planned. Watch this space!

Library Assistant Club: thank you!

The Library Assistant Club gathers every week shelving, repairing or cataloguing mountains of books between North and South Site. I don’t know what I would do without them, and I would like to thank them for their wonderful commitment.

Merry Christmas!

ENGLISH DEPT KS5 NEWS:

Sixth Form trip to Strawberry Hill House

- the ‘birthplace’ of Gothic Literature

In October, 56 Year 13 English students set off on a sunny Autumn day for the Gothic delights of Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, the artistic expression of Horace Walpole’s Gothic vision. We were treated to small group tours of the house and a very informative lecture by Elizabeth Parker from St Mary’s Twickenham. We had the gardens and house to ourselves for the day, and it was a fantastic place to enrich students’ knowledge of the Gothic genre - a key component of their A Level course.

By Mrs Eve

ENGLISH DEPT NEWS:

Go Team Hamlet!

Back in the summer of 2021, Team Hamlet was in nascent form! Working as a teacher-facilitator, I offered a group of Cherwell A Level English Literature students the opportunity to explore the possibility of creating a one and half hour version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The dream was to work towards a stage performance around December 2022, but back in July we had no real idea what this would look like. We enjoyed the fact that the project was organic and would gain shape as we went along.

As Hamlet is the longest of Shakespeare's tragedies and normally performed in around three and a half hours, the students and I knew the project posed a serious challenge! Emma A, Izzy E, Leyla M, Eli L, Hattie K and Rebeka L were there at the very start of the journey meeting this challenge full on. They formed a script editing team that early on made the decision to focus on Hamlet’s personal demise over the political dimensions of the play. When the students returned to school in September, Team Hamlet grew in number, with Alice H, Rowan S, Georgina P, Oscar G, Clara B, Freddie D, Freya M, and Jules P all taking on a range of roles. As co-directors, Emma A and Izzy E worked tirelessly throughout the six months, managing and rehearsing the cast outside of school hours.

The challenges were many, not least the issue of identifying a space to perform and working with no budget. This meant that the students also had to think and act creatively. In the end, Team Hamlet were lucky enough to perform at Pegasus Theatre in Oxford, and were able to use props and costumes sourced from their own wardrobes, Headington charity shop Helen and Douglas House, and the Pegasus costume room to successfully create their dark academia concept design on stage.

The big day came on Friday 25th November. After a technical rehearsal and full dress rehearsal, the time had finally come for the final performance! This was enjoyed by cast, crew and audience alike. The opportunity to perform in a professional theatre to an audience of over 100 family and friends was one everyone involved will remember for a long time to come! Thanks to everyone who gave the students their support and encouragement along the way- parents, friends and teachers. There was a formidable amount of work going on behind the scenes, but it all felt worth it in the end!

Thanks to the following members of staff for their generous support with the production: K Sullivan, L Baldwin, F Holloway, H Findlay and S Hands.

By Ms Bird