New Challenges = New Experiences

NEW CHALLENGES AND NEW EXPERIENCES

Words by Erin Fitzpatrick HEAD OF LEANING AREA -ENGLISH

One of the key revelations of life under lockdown in 2020 has been the importance of imagination and creativity and the need for artistic stimulation in our lives. Imagine the lockdown without books, films or TV - how would we have fared without written or visual language in this quiet and potentially isolated time?

Writing has always been an important artistic outlet for many people, and we have been delighted at the way writing has flourished in lockdown. Here at Rangi Ruru we are proud of the community of young writers we have established. Every week girls in the Creative Writing Club from Year 9 through to Year 13 come together in order to share ideas, develop their writing skills and support each other. The group is headed by Year 13 student Katherine Rutter, who helps run sessions and encourage girls to enter competitions. While there is a focus on supporting students to enter local and national competitions, we also love to celebrate the smaller successes – writing as a daily habit, or finally sharing a new piece of work with others for critique. There is no prerequisite to join, simply a passion for writing and a desire to spend time crafting work is all we ask.

2020 brings with it new challenges – but with those challenges, new experiences and ideas that will help shape future writing.

On whispers of wind, Beneath rainbows of old leaves, The new season comes.

HEIDI CAUGHLEY, Year 12 (daily haiku)

If I Had the power To change the past I wouldn’t Change a thing Because it would mean I never met you

KATHERINE RUTTER – Poem written for ‘Spread the Aroha’ week

English Class

Another key focus in our faculty is on the importance of reading. Interestingly, as soon as our Prime Minister announced lockdown, the first place our students rushed to was the library. Competition was rife as girls rushed to issue a stock of books. Over the last two years, our Faculty has decided to foster a vibrant community of readers who LOVE to read and WANT to read, knowing that reading will not only improve their vocabulary, but enrich their writing, enhancing their curiosity and understanding of our world. To that end, at the beginning of 2019, we created The Reading Project, led by Kerry-Anne Murnane. This project has involved a variety of activities all designed to highlight the act of reading in a positive way and to encourage reading throughout our whole school community. Beginning with surveying both staff and students, we came to realise that many of our students struggled to find a text they enjoyed. Once they did find that crucial text, however, they were happy to read so we decided that our challenge was to create opportunities for them to be exposed to a variety of texts. Year 9 and the Staff had the opportunity to take part in Book Tasting events, and Isabel from the Gibson Centre came to classes to talk about texts available to loan. We also had visits by authors and some of us participated in First Chapter Fridays where we read the first chapter of a text to expose our students to different genres and authors culminating in a Book Character Dress-Up Day. 2020 sees more of the same focus on reading but with more activities such as the simple but most effective ideas of staff posting on their doors a sign that states: What I have Read, What I’m Reading and What I Want to Read role-modelling to our students that we are all readers and also providing them with other reading options. Attending live theatre performances is also something we promote strongly. The shared experience of viewing a performance allows our students to become increasingly curious about the world around them. In the last twelve months, we have welcomed the Poetry in Action team who performed to Years 7-10. We also greeted the Young and Hungry theatre troupe and their production of I AM MĀORI for our Year 12. This performance was based on excerpts from six New Zealand plays. In the classroom, one Year 12 English class has been visited by the New Zealand poet Bernadette Hall and editor of Lorna Anker’s poetry collection ‘The Judas Tree.’ Moreover, students have collaborated across disciplines in order to apply the knowledge gained in one discipline to another different discipline. This is a way to deepen the learning experience. Class outings have included outings to the Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetū, as a stimulus for creative writing. As another example, a Year 10 English class attended a ballet lesson with Ms Bell whilst studying ‘Hope in a Ballet Shoe.’ STEAM education highlights the importance of the ability to express innovative and creative ideas. In the English faculty, we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with Science, Maths, the Arts and Technology.