Congratulations Year 9!
You've survived your first full school week of lockdown and it's officially the weekend!
Even though 7 days have passed since school closed, I'm sure you agree that it feels like longer. Some of you may be wondering, as I am, how you are possibly going to fill time during the weekend and the Easter holidays with less school work to be completed and significantly more time on your hands.
The truthful answer is that some of you extroverts are going to find it tough not being able to go out an see your friends. For those who are more introverted and prefer your own company, then this might not be such a worry. Either way, it will be a chance for us all to have a fair few lie-ins and catch up on some rest and relaxation...unless you have younger siblings who like to wake you up early, or you're like Mr and Mrs Matthews who have two tiny babies to keep them occupied.
As a young Miss Moore, being an only child and living in a time when the only fun thing you could do on your mobile phone was play 'snake', I would always have to find things to amuse myself during long holidays.
I remember constantly whining to my Nan: "I'm bored!".
Her reply would always be the same: "How are you bored? There's so much to do, why don't you draw a picture?"
... Safe to say, I drew A LOT of pictures.
***Now, this is the point of the story where Miss Long gets her imaginary violin out in the Head of Year office to acknowledge my tragic childhood growing up without siblings***
What I'm trying to say is, be creative with your free time. Here's an idea to keep you occupied, and the added bonus is that it helps to improve your English skills too. It's called Black-out Poetry.
Step 1. Find an example of written text in your house (e.g. a magazine, newspaper)
Step 2. Find an article that you would like to use. It can be about anything and it's up to you how long or short this is.
Step 3. Take a pencil and start circling words you like that might sound good together. They don't always have to flow, but sometimes it helps. You'll get better at this as you go along.
Step 4. Take a black biro, or black pen and black out all the words you don't want. Keep punctuation in where possible.
Step 5. Read back your poem made up of the words and punctuation that are left on the page.
Here's a couple I've been working on below. Top Tip: It definitely works better when you use a pen with a thinner tip.
As you can imagine, a lot of the articles are relevant to the virus 'that-shall-not-be-named', so the poems I ended up creating have a similar theme. My favourite reads:
These frightening days keep apart
loved ones.
A city fallen silent.
isolation.
Human contact banned.
New bonds, skills.
Talking, read.
Vital moments of connection
encourage
them.
When we emerge
strong. None of us should
feel alone.
If you have a go at this, send me a picture your finished version so I can pop the best ones on here. If you're feeling even more creative, have a look at the examples below, or visit the website to get more inspiration...
Whilst we're on the topic of creativity, Miss Hibbins-Durkin is also hoping for your help. Her grand plan, as a symbol of celebration, is to create enough bunting to decorate the school with when we return. All you need to do is send in your messages of kindness to khibbinsdurkin@slaesian.surrey.sch.uk All of these messages will then be posted on bunting and put around the school.
The more messages, the better it will look, so get to it Year 9- don't let me down!
"Time Out " In
If you're a theatre enthusiast like me, you might have had a few events booked that have now been cancelled. I was meant to be taking my family to see 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' next week, but it's sadly been put on hold for now.
Instead, I've been making good use of my NETFLIX account and I've also heard great things about the new Disney +.
However, if you're already bored of the same old TV shows, you should consider this...
'Time Out' (temporarily rebranded 'Time In') are a pretty good magazine/website that reviews things like current films, theatre shows and music events in London. Here's the link to their website if you want to check it out...
To help us all out with lockdown, they've recommended The National Theatre Youtube Channel. Due to all of their performances being on hold, they have decided to stream some theatre shows on 'youtube' over the next few weeks on the link below:
Interested? Here's the schedule:
April 2 ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ by Richard Bean, starring James Corden. Read our review.
April 9 ‘Jane Eyre’, adapted by Sally Cookson. Read our review.
April 16 ‘Treasure Island’, adapted by Bryony Lavery. Read our review.
April 23 ‘Twelfth Night’ by William Shakespeare, starring Tamsin Greig. Read our review.
Additionally, the National Theatre will be rolling out National Theatre Collection study resources to pupils now learning at home.
You could even set yourself a task of drawing the set design/making performance notes if you're really bored. If you do, send what you've done to myself and Miss Cella- we'd love to see what you've been up to in preparation for starting your Year 10 drama course next year.
In the meantime, enjoy the sun in your free time while it lasts and make sure you keep yourselves healthy. As always, if you need me, you can 'virtually' find me marking, planning lessons, responding to emails, streaming James Corden in 'One Man, Two Guvnors', watching Netflix, reading, doing yoga, cooking, learning Polish and creating black-out poetry all with a cuppa in reach in the same spot in my tiny garden below.
And remember, if you're bored...try not to be.
Miss M x
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