We love teaching in a school with a real reading culture. Reading isn’t just the domain of the English department; it feels like a valuable endeavour that we’re all in together. As a fundamental life skill, reading develops critical thinking, helps us question the things we hear, and enables us to learn, enjoy and understand our own feelings, but also empathise with others too. It improves our writing, it is useful for all school subjects, and it brings us joy in our free time too. Everything that reading teaches us plays into everything else at Highgate: a message that is reiterated frequently.
We think this is why we are bucking the national trend here. As the UK faces a steep decline in reading, our A level numbers have been steadily increasing over the past five years, from about 20 pupils, to the current intake, which is around 40. Similarly, more and more pupils are choosing to pursue English Literature at university, with ten Highgate pupils studying the subject at Oxbridge in the past two years for example.
Part of the reason why English is enjoying this surge in popularity at Highgate is the imaginative freedom we have in our curriculum. We don’t all teach the same thing: each English teacher bases their text choice on what they love and the pupils in their classroom. We enjoy teaching in a school of specialists with individual tastes: it’s exciting and never stale. We also want pupils to enjoy curling up with a good book they have chosen at home, watching a new play, or delving into a non-fiction thriller: it’s not simply about sitting an exam. We are lucky that we have an amazing library with fantastic librarians. It’s our favourite place in the school. Every pupil in Key Stage 3 spends one lesson per fortnight reading a book in a comfy armchair under a timber-vaulted ceiling! The Library is physically and metaphorically at the heart of the school. We have curated reading lists driven by pupil choice to suit all tastes, but pupils read whatever they love: graphic novels, YA fiction, classics, non-fiction and more.
Inside the classroom, we give pupils as broad an experience of literature as possible (from different voices, countries and time periods), as we want them to see themselves represented in the texts they study and to learn about other experiences, while also developing cultural literacy. We read a diverse range of texts: novels, poetry, non-fiction, modern drama, and Shakespeare plays. Pupil engagement is high, and they often think of creative ideas to extend their understanding of literature. On a recent occasion, Sixth Form pupils had the idea to recreate the dinner party from Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse over lunchtime. All the pupils allocated their roles, and catering helped provide the menu from the novel. We acted it out while we ate and then we discussed what the characters were thinking, rather than what they were saying. They’d planned it all in advance on top of the normal lessons. It was lovely to see the pupils so excited!
Creative writing is also central to everything that we do at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, from writing sonnets in Year 7 to writing short stories in Years 9 and 10. Pupils also write letters to themselves, articles on issues of power, and persuasive speeches on topics they care about. There are several lunchtime creative writing clubs and pupils take the editorial lead on our magazine, The Windhover, which includes work from pupils in Y7 all the way up to Y13. Visiting writers such as Anthony Anaxagorou talk about their careers, read their works and inspire our pupils to improve their writing through lectures and workshops.
As well as inviting in speakers, we take pupils on trips all the time. Y7 visits The Globe Theatre and pupils take part in a workshop with professional actors. Y8 goes on a literary tour of Highgate Cemetery to complement their study of Gothic literature. At GCSE every pupil studies a Shakespeare play and we always go and see it. This year, we saw the immersive production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre; last year we went to the Barbican. The Sixth Form syllabus is full of trips to the theatre, including a residential visit to Stratford Upon Avon, where pupils visit Shakespeare’s home, see a production of an Early Modern play and go on a backstage tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company. We also visit Milton’s Cottage every year with Year 12. Recently our Sixth Form pupils have seen Bernadine Evaristo in conversation with Malorie Blackman, and this week we are taking Year 12 to see All My Sons.
Perhaps our highlight of the school calendar is The Lyttelton, our biggest event of the year. Every pupil in the school who studies English prepares a poem to declaim in front of their class, progressing through the heats and a semi-final round to reach the evening final in front of invited guests. It’s lovely to see pupils finding new poems they enjoy, and we’re impressed by the dedication, passion and talent every year. The winning declaimers then go on to judge their teachers reciting poems!
Most of all, we’re proud that our pupils leave Highgate with a lifelong enjoyment of books. As one recent leaver put it, “I still miss English lessons, because you knew that you might end up talking about anything and it would be the most interesting conversation of the day.” We hope that this love of words and talking about them empowers our pupils in their future lives. As the fictional playwright Henry in Sir Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing puts it, “I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world…”
About the author Odette Orlans and Roland Powell, Joint Heads of English Odette and Roland both joined Highgate 12 years ago to teach English, and now jointly lead the department. Each with an English Language and Literature degree from the University of Oxford, Roland and Odette enjoy a happy collaboration rooted in a deep love of literature, and the endless joy that it brings to our community.
