English Symposium

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14 Dec 2022

English Symposium Write-up

 

On Wednesday 7th December, our school hosted an English Symposium. It was an insightful event that saw the Upper Sixth A-Level English students, along with those from three other schools (Watford Girls, Bentley Wood and Rickmansworth), join together to create a shared hub for discussion and knowledge. The day began with everyone finding their tables and introducing themselves, with each group having a mix of students from each school. Then, it was time to start learning. Many of our school’s students went to the front to give mini lectures, each on different topics and ideologies that could be applied to our English studies - regardless of texts being taught in lessons. These covered a whole host of subject matters: anything from philosophical theories to feminist criticism. After every few lectures, we got the opportunity to share our personal thoughts on the topics with the people on our tables - hearing various perspectives and potentially gaining the ability to perceive them in a fresh light.

 

Once these ended and lunch had been eaten, we sat through a series of talks about revision techniques that will certainly prove useful in our upcoming exams. Finally, we reached the climactic moment that the day had been building up to. Mr Tokarz led a workshop that required us to put all that we had learnt earlier in the morning into practice. We were exposed to various texts, images, videos and music, and each time we had to discuss how the frameworks could be applied and provide us with a greater understanding of their meaning. All in all, it was an incredibly enjoyable experience that allowed us to speak publicly to a large audience and interact with others in a way that isn’t typically possible in a normal classroom setting. A big thank you to Mr Tokarz and Dr Zanganeh for organising this day...and the excellent selection of refreshments available throughout!

Theo Adam U6T