Sources A, B, C and D are all poems offering differen t perspectives on ‘school days’.

1. Sources A, B, C and D are all poems offering different perspectives on ‘school days’. Read, discuss, and annotate each poem. Once we’re ready, we’ll be writing an essay focusing on: How are school days portrayed differently across the four poems?

3. True or false? Stephen Fry was an infant in the 1960s 2) In the 1960s every single prep and public school was single-sex 3) Nowadays girls are only involved in the sixth form of public schools 4) Nowadays parents are less keen to send their kids to boarding school 5) Headmasters are younger now than they used to be 6) Modern parents expect more of a say over how schools are run 7) The heating and diet facilities of public schools have grown worse over time 8) Stephen Fry thinks the system has changed completely over time Extract from Stephen Fry’s ‘Moab is my Washpot’ In his autobiography, Stephen Fry talks about prep and public schools, and how they have – or haven’t – changed over time. At the time of my infancy, the early 1960s, nearly all prep and public schools – like the one I attended - were single-sex boarding schools. Today, girls are involved to a much greater degree, sometimes only in the sixth form, sometimes all the way through. Parents are more reluctant to pack their children off early and may choose to have them attend as day pupils or weekly boarders. Headmasters are younger than they were and more likely to be married. Parents expect more say in the running of a school, to attend more PTA meetings and to complain more vocally about living conditions, discipline and the curriculum. Heating, diet, facilities, syllabus and discipline seem far less Spartan now than they were twenty years ago. But these changes aside, the system, so far as I have been able to ascertain, is much as it was.

4. True or false? Stephen Fry was an infant in the 1960s 2) In the 1960s every single prep and public school was single-sex 3) Nowadays girls are only involved in the sixth form of public schools 4) Nowadays parents are less keen to send their kids to boarding school 5) Headmasters are younger now than they used to be 6) Modern parents expect more of a say over how schools are run 7) The heating and diet facilities of public schools have grown worse over time 8) Stephen Fry thinks the system has changed completely over time Extract from Stephen Fry’s ‘Moab is my Washpot’ In his autobiography, Stephen Fry talks about prep and public schools, and how they have – or haven’t – changed over time. At the time of my infancy, the early 1960s, nearly all prep and public schools – like the one I attended - were single-sex boarding schools. Today, girls are involved to a much greater degree, sometimes only in the sixth form, sometimes all the way through. Parents are more reluctant to pack their children off early and may choose to have them attend as day pupils or weekly boarders. Headmasters are younger than they were and more likely to be married. Parents expect more say in the running of a school, to attend more PTA meetings and to complain more vocally about living conditions, discipline and the curriculum. Heating, diet, facilities, syllabus and discipline seem far less Spartan now than they were twenty years ago. But these changes aside, the system, so far as I have been able to ascertain, is much as it was.

5. How do we summarise two sources? • Knowledge • It’s important that you can take information from different places, and summarise all you’ve learned. • Skills: • Closely read two sources • Make inferences from each source • Summarise what you’ve learned • Understanding: • Clear written summaries of information learned and inferred.

8. Summarise the similarities and differences between Churchill’s early experience of education and Fry’s.

9. You could start it like this…

10. Summarise the similarities and differences between Churchill’s early experience of education and Fry’s.

11. How does Churchill use language? • Knowledge • You can write a sophisticated analysis of language only focussing on verbs and adjectives (though of course there’ll always be more you could write about!) • Skills: • Closely read the extract • Identify language choices made • Analyse the effect on the reader • Understanding: • Produce a written language analysis.

12. How does the writer use language to describe his early experiences of education? Let’s look at the bigger piece in smaller sections, and see what language we can find in each bit… • LOs • Select examples of effective language use • Explain how the reader feels when they read those examples • Use appropriate subject terminology to write about those examples

13. Language Analysis – Verbs and adjectives

14. It was at ‘The Little Lodge’ I was first menaced with Education. The approach of a sinister figure described as “the Governess” was announced. Her arrival was fixed for a certain day. In order to prepare for this day Mrs Everest produced a book called ‘Reading Without Tears’. It certainly did not justify its title in my case. I was made aware that before the Governess arrived I must be able to read without tears. We toiled each day. My nurse pointed with a pen at different letters. I thought it all very tiresome. Our preparations were by no means complete when the fateful hour struck and the Governess was due to arrive. I did what so many oppressed people have done in similar circumstances: I took to the woods. I hid in the extensive shrubberies – forests they seemed – which surrounded ‘The Little Lodge’. Hours passed before I was retrieved and handed to ‘the Governess’. We continued to toil every day, not only at letters, but at words, and also at what was much worse – numbers. Focus: Emotive language which makes you feel a certain way Word class – verbs and adjectives

15. It was at ‘The Little Lodge’ I was first menaced with Education.

16. The approach of a sinister figure described as “the Governess” was announced. Her arrival was fixed for a certain day.

17. In order to prepare for this day Mrs Everest produced a book called ‘Reading Without Tears’. It certainly did not justify its title in my case. I was made aware that before the Governess arrived I must be able to read without tears.

18. We toiled each day. My nurse pointed with a pen at different letters. I thought it all very tiresome.

19. Our preparations were by no means complete when the fateful hour struck and the Governess was due to arrive.

20. I did what so many oppressed people have done in similar circumstances: I took to the woods. I hid in the extensive shrubberies – forests they seemed – which surrounded ‘The Little Lodge’.

21. Hours passed before I was retrieved and handed to ‘the Governess’. We continued to toil every day, not only at letters, but at words, and also at what was much worse – numbers.

22. Here’s how you could write about the emotive verbs Churchill used.

23. How does the writer use language to describe his early experiences of education? Use the notes you just made. Write a paragraph explaining the emotive verb choices, and a second explaining the emotive adjective choices. • LOs • Select examples of effective language use • Explain how the reader feels when they read those examples • Use appropriate subject terminology to write about those examples

24. Compare how the two writers convey their different attitudes to education. In your answer, you should: • compare their different attitudes • compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes • support your ideas with quotations from both texts. • LOs • Compare the viewpoints of different writers about similar issues • Explain the methods writers use to convey their viewpoint • Use quotations from both texts to justify your views

25. Useful prompt questions… How do the two writers feel about the education they received? Which of the texts is personal and which is general? How does this affect how the message comes across? Which of the texts contains more emotive language? How does that affect how they message comes across? How are the two texts structured? Do the arguments build to a certain point? Can you come up with any other differences between how these two writers convey their views and opinions?

26. Read Sources F and G. Discuss auto/biographical writing. What is it for? What does it include? How is it written?

27. Imagine you’re in your 60s or 70s. You’ve lived, loved, worked, retired, and now decided to write your autobiography. It will now be the 2060s or 2070s and the UK education system will (probably) be very different to how it is today. Write a brief section for your autobiography where you discuss what it was like going to school in 2019. You’ll have to really describe it, as the readers won’t have had a similar experience!

28. Listen to leading academic Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas on education… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFMZrEABdw4

29. http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education?language=enhttp://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education?language=en Watch the video, then explore the transcript!

30. What point is this cartoon making? Do you think it’s a fair criticism of our system? Can you think of any fairer alternative ways of organising the system?

31. What point is this cartoonist trying to make? Do you think the cartoonist has a valid point? Who really is responsible for a child’s grades?

32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5yg0u1MkDI Listen to this poem about teaching, from the perspective of a teacher. Discuss what the point of school is – from the point of view of your teachers!

34. Writing task Write a speech explaining how school could be improved. The speech is intended to be heard by the Head Teacher of your school, so be specific.

35. How does Dickens use language to present characters? • Knowledge • Writers carefully select their vocabulary to make their readers feel a certain way. Writers also choose language devices and figurative language to create reactions and emotions in their readers. • Skills: • Identify examples of effective language use. Use correct terminology to discuss this language. Explain the effect this language has on the reader. • Understanding: • Answer the short-form questions around the text. Use these to create an extended analysis of language use.

38. How does Dickens use language to present characters? You’ve got four things you can talk about. We need to practise putting these individual points together to form one extended answer. I’m going to model this on the board – look at how I’m taking the four different points and turning it into paragraphs, to provide an overall answer. By the end of this half term, you’ll be able to produce an extended response like this, all by yourself!

39. How can youuse language to present characters? • Knowledge • Writers carefully select their vocabulary to make their readers feel a certain way. Writers also choose language devices and figurative language to create reactions and emotions in their readers. • Skills: • Remind yourself of the language and vocabulary choices that Dickens made. Come up with similar but different choices you could use to describe a positive character with pleasant views on education. • Understanding: • Write the start of a story – just like Dickens’ – but where the mood is switched from negative to positive.

40. “NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!” The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a schoolroom, and the speaker’s square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster’s sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker’s obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, — all helped the emphasis. “NOW, what I want is, Creativity and Fun. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Creativity and Fun. These are all you need in life. Sow the seeds of Creativity, and water them with Fun. Happy, productive children need this diet: nothing else will ever be of any use to them, or anyone else. These values are how I’ve raised my children at home, and how I plan to raise the children at this school. Creativity, and Fun, sir!” The location for this conversation was an ornate, beautifully decorated temple of a schoolroom, and the speaker’s pink hands emphasized his observations by pumping enthusiastically with every word. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hairstyle, which was the embodiment of the Creativity and Fun he so celebrated. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which even when speaking found itself formed into a wry smile. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was cheeky, chirpy and cheerful. The speaker’s multicolour coat, his multicolour scarf, his mismatching but still multicolour socks , all served to underline his complete and whole-hearted commitment to those two Gods: Creativity and Fun. There’s Dickens on the left, and my example on the right. You have a go!

41. “NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!” Where might Dickens have used a colon to join two main clauses?

42. “NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life: plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children: stick to Facts, sir!” Make sure that you don’t use capitals after colons, unless it’s ‘I’ or a proper noun

43. “NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life: plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children: stick to Facts, sir!” Edit your own writing adding colons where appropriate. Use a pink pen.

44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Mqy8f2laA Watch this extract from ‘The Illustrated Hard Times’.