READING NEWSLETTER
Issue No. 10 Autumn 2024
Welcome to our first edition of the St Cuthbert’s Reading Newsletter of this academic year. In this issue, we reflect and update you on how we have promoted and celebrated reading this half term and hear from book-loving pupils, students, and staff. After a very long half term, why not curl up and relax with a spooky read to get you into the Halloween spirit?
National Poetry Day On 3rd October St Cuthbert’s celebrated National Poetry Day. To mark the occasion, at lunch time we held an exclusive ticketed poetry recital in the Library. Offering welcome drinks and canapes, we heard pupils, students, and staff recite a range of poems. We were also privileged to have visit us ex-student Steve Harvey who left the school in 1971. He read a selection of poems from his latest published collection ‘Between Dreams’. Below is a list of the students and staff who recited poems in the event. Mr Willis: Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Darkling Thrush’ Mr Stewart: Louis Macneice’s ‘The Sunlight on the Garden’ Mrs Foley: Emily Dickinson’s ‘A Funeral in my Brain’ and Lewis Caroll’s ‘The Jacberwocky’. Alexander O’Malley (Year 9): his own poem, ‘Words a Flight’ Isaac Lancaster (Year 11): ‘Lindisfarne’ (poet unknown) Wencey Mgniah (Year 11): Percey Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ Felipe Boada Unger (Year 13): Goneril’s speech in Act 1; Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ Matthew Balding (Year 13) - Regan’s speech in Act 1; Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’.
Black History Month This month, to mark Black History Month, Year 13 A level Literature students Felipe Boada Unger and George Allan led a workshop to the lower school on reclaimed narratives in their A level text ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison. Looking at how Morrison gives a voice to those who had their voices suppressed during the Slave Trade, Felipe and George focussed specifically on the Margaret Garner story. This led a thoughtprovoking discussion, which generated perceptive comments from all who attended.