The art of ballad writing
On Friday 1 July, students from the Lower Fourth celebrated the progress they have made in English this year, with an afternoon in the yurts. This term we have studied the art of writing a ballad. Students have learnt about rhythm and metre, rhyme patterns and content, as well as performance skills. They then researched different disasters/ tragedies and created fact files to help them when writing their own ballads. After this came the drafting process and after two weeks each student had written a completely original ballad.
I was so moved by the beautiful poems handed to me that I decided that they needed to be celebrated. So on Friday we invited parents to join us in an afternoon of performance poetry. The students read their ballads with confidence and maturity, and both myself and Deirdre Cattermole, Head of English and Learning Faculty, were extremely proud of them. They have come a long way this year and Friday was a perfect end to a fantastic year of achievement.
Well done 8En3.
Sadie Jarvis
Teacher of Drama