Teachers Talking Texts Teachers Talking Texts

Our first episode on unseen poetry! In this episode Miss Iqbal, Miss Kemp and Miss Neokleous discuss Wendy Cope's poem 'Sonnet'. If you find unseen poetry a challenge, this is the episode for you. You can hear how the three of them discuss a poem that they've never read before, developing and building upon their interpretations together. 

Click here to read the poem with them. Did you come up with the same ideas? Do you have any thoughts they missed? Let us know!

In this episode, English teachers discuss whether they feel sympathy for Macbeth after he has murdered the King of Scotland. Is he an evil, twisted man or a mere human like any one else, who just took it one step too far?

Closing off the Spring Term, Ms Iqbal and Mr Rahman are joined by four of our Year 10s to talk through An Inspector Calls. With topics ranging from  love, responsibility and power to gender, justice and even prison abolition, we put together a ranging approach to this key GCSE text that remains relevant to this day.

In the return of the English Electives after the lockdown, Ms Kemp speaks on power, consent, blackness and othering. Looking closely at Titus Andronicus, King Lear and Measure for Measure among others, we explore what it means to be on the outside. Find the resources here: https://bit.ly/3cM6rSP

In our third session of the English Electives, Mr Rahman and the Sixth Form speak about migration, dehumanisation, institutional neglect and neocolonial industry under the title of English & Power: Capitalism, White Supremacy and Decolonisation. From Grenfell and Yarl's Wood to Unilever, Burkina Faso and Rana Plaza, we build an understanding of what we understand White Supremacy to be and how the English Language plays a role in it all. Find the resources here: https://rb.gy/8tdmrk

Teachers from Mayfield School gather to talk about Jekyll and Hyde, telling you what we think it's all about. In this episode, we discuss whether there's a monster in all of us, the anxieties of today that this novel speaks to, and what makes Stevenson distinctive as a writer.