English Outside the Classroom

The English, Drama, Media and Film department have so many projects on the go that there is not much chance of the students getting away without learning something outside the classroom – not least because as always our biggest aim is to get them reading… but more of that later.

First there are all the extras to tell you about. For example did you know that there are plans afoot for a school production? It will be loud, proud and unashamedly dramatic and of course it will provide opportunities for students to take part in marketing, promotion and ticket sales, set design, costume design, lighting and sound design – plus of course performance and music.

For budding writers there are two new clubs in 2009, one for comedy writers and the other for comic writers…

To be more specific, a group of talented comedians will be trying to make their way into the world of internet satire by writing and posting their satirical articles on the website NewsBiscuit, which exists to promote talented and undiscovered writers. A second group meanwhile will be honing their story-writing skills on the creation of a comic book – including all the art work of course – so watch this space for the creative talent of the future. Technically of course, both these clubs might take place in a classroom, so for something a bit different……

Try Academy Confidential. It’s the new website about our school, our community and our whole world, written by our students who are a formidable reporting team!

Guided as ever by Mr Evans, the site has been in development for some time and is now up and running. In a similar vein, some year eight students will continue to develop their journalistic skills by taking part in the BBC News Report in March which involves them creating live television reports for the BBC website – hope they don’t get nervous!  

And there’s more! All students have the opportunity to contribute to a fantastic exhibition in the summer called Moss Side Stories about the people who live, work or go to school in Moss Side and some will then take part in the process of designing, writing, building – even performing in – some of the exhibits.

This will take some students out of our classrooms and into the lecture theatres of Manchester Metropolitan University, who are our very helpful and clever partners in this event, as well as into workshops and studios to make the stories of our students come to life.

This project is extra special because it will mean we can shout about how many fantastic people we have in Moss Side every day… And it is one of our students’ parents who is making it all happen for us at MMU, so it just shows what we can do when we all work together.

And the reading..? It is the most important bit! If there is one thing we want all our students to do to make sure that they are learning outside the classroom it is to read.

Read the newspapers, the sports reports, a magazine, books, poems, websites – but read something every day – and the chances are they will learn something new every day too!

Everything starts with reading...