Ibsen and Rossetti: Recent Episodes
St John's English Department
A run-through of all ten Edexcel IGCSE English Language Anthology texts, considering the core of each text, their form, purpose and audience.
This podcast analyses 'Ode to a Nightingale' by John Keats from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
Alice Bufton-Thorneycroft played the role of Lady Macbeth in Esher Theatre's sell-out run in October. Here, she kindly and brilliantly discusses her views on the role.
This podcast focuses on analysis of Act 4, scene 1 of Macbeth for the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Literature syllabus
This podcast analyses both 'Holy Thursday' poems by William Blake from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This poem analyses 'The Sick Rose' by William Blake from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast analyses 'Ode on Melancholy' by John Keats from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast analyses 'Sonnet on the Sea' by John Keats from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast is on 'Lines Written in Early Spring' by William Wordsworth from the EDEXCEL English A-Level Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast analyses the poem 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' by John Keats from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry collection
This podcast analyses the second half of 'Disabled' by Wilfred Owen (from line 26 onwards) for IGCSE English Language
This podcast analyses 'The Question' by Percy Shelley from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry collection
This podcast analyses 'The Cold Earth Slept Below' by Percy Shelley from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry collection
This podcast analyses 'Stanzas Written in Dejection, Near Naples' by Percy Shelley from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry collection
The new St John's Poet Laureate, Tara Srihiran-Brown, reads her poem, 'Roots', and discusses her influences and the experience of writing this poem.
This podcast analyses the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Language anthology text 'A Passage to Africa'
This podcast analyses the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Language anthology text 'Explorers or Boys Messing About'
This podcast is on the anthology text '127 hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place' by Aron Ralston from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast is on the anthology text 'The Explorer's Daughter' by Kari Herbert from the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Language anthology
This podcast is on the anthology text 'The Danger of a Single Story' by Chimamanda Adichie from the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Language Anthology
This podcast is on the poem 'On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year' by Lord Byron from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast is on the poem 'Lines Inscribed on a Cup Formed From a Skull' by Lord Byron from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast is on the poem 'So We'll Go No More a Roving' by Lord Byron from the EDEXCEL A-Level English Romantic Poetry anthology
This podcast is on the poem 'Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn' from the EDEXCEL A-Level English anthology 'Poems of the Decade'
This podcast is on the poem 'History' from the EDEXCEL A-Level English anthology 'Poems of the Decade'
This podcast is on the poem 'From the Journal of a Disappointed Man' from the EDEXCEL A-Level English anthology 'Poems of the Decade'
This podcast focuses on the poem 'A Minor Role' from the A-Level English 'Poems of the Decade' anthology
In today's episode, we have three Year 11 pupils discussing the character of George in Of Mice and Men.
In this episode, two Year 11 pupils discuss the theme of vulnerability in the novella, considering what makes a character vulnerable and what effect such vulnerability has on their actions.
In this episode, we have two Year 11 pupils discussing the theme of dreams in the novella.
Two Year 11 pupils discuss this important character in Of Mice and Men, and the tragic nature of both her existence and her death.
Two Year 11 pupils discuss the character of Lennie in Steinbeck's novella, covering some interesting critical angles as well as some of the context that can illuminate this central character.
A pair of Year 11 pupils discuss the character of Crooks within the novella, and consider some of the contextual factors that may have influenced Steinbeck in his creation of this character.
A group of Year 11 pupils discuss the character of Candy in Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men.
NJJ makes a critical reading of 'Material' by Ros Barber from the 'Poems of the Decade' anthology
A podcast on the EDEXCEL A-Level poem 'Genetics' by Sinead Morrissey from the 'Poems of the Decade' anthology
A podcast on the EDEXCEL A-Level poem 'The Furthest Distances I've Travelled' by Leonita Flynn from the Poems of the Decade anthology
A review of why this line is so important in the novel, and the context that created such loneliness.
A short review of why this is such an important image within the novella, taking into account some of the views of other characters and some of the context behind the image.
NJJ explains so-called Queer Theory and takes a Queer lens to Rossetti and Twelfth Night
Our wonderful and inaugural Pupil Poet Laureate, Claudia Hollington, reads her poem entitled 'Childhood', the text of which is below:
Childhood
Marvelling at the many silvery trails
Traced on the leaf-lined bottles and pails
That we collected and built with care
for a clientele of snails.
A summer uniform striped in white and blue,
The smell of sunscreen in hazy air
And the soft song as the pigeons coo.
Feet tingling, feeling dizzy
Sat high on wooden beams
That we scaled in the playground
When the teachers couldn’t see.
A cross country run through frosty woods
Ducking branches and jumping roots
Lungs burning from the winter air,
Mud caked on all our boots.
NJJ interrogates Carol Ann Duffy's 'Mrs Sisyphus' from a Marxist perspective. Roll up, roll up!
NJJ's crash course on instant AO5 takes a look at the politics of comedy in Twelfth Night.
NJJ's crash course on political readings of texts considers the poetry, and politics, of Christina Rossetti.
NJJ's crash course on political readings kicks off with a Marxist take on Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. Seriously.
Using the opening seven stanzas of Coleridge's poem as a starter (and continuing his rhyme scheme and meter), some bright and brilliant Year 6 pupils continue Cristabel's journey as she peers around the oak...
This podcast is on the EDEXCEL IGCSE English literature poem 'Blessing' by Imtiaz Dharker
This podcast is on the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Literature poem 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti
This is a podcast on the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Literature poem 'The Tyger' by William Blake
This is a podcast on the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Literature poem Prayer Before Birth by Louis MacNeice
NJJ reviews the history of heroism in life and literature, and asks the question: are we now living in a post-heroic age?
This is a podcast on the IGCSE English Literature poem Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare
This podcast is on the EDEXCEL IGCSE English Literature poem 'Search for my Tongue' by Sujata Bhatt
NJJ's fifth and final podcast goes right to the core of the play: 'What is love?' What indeed ...
The fourth in NJJ's 'Just One Quote' series explores the theme of youth and the passing of time through Feste's song lyric 'Youth's a stuff will not endure.'
A brief discussion of Alagiah's piece from the IGCSE Edexcel Anthology - A Passage to Africa.
The third in NJJ's 'Just One Quote' series within this podcast. This episode focuses on love and the soul in Twelfth Night through Viola's line from Act 1, Scene 5: "Make me a willow cabin at your gate, / And call upon my soul within the house; / Write loyal cantons of contemned love / And sing them loud even in the dead of night;"
Year 8 pupils discuss this controversial dystopian novel and its various disturbing elements.
The second in NJJ's 'Just One Quote' series within this podcast. This episode focuses on Twelfth Night's Feste, the melancholy clown.
The first of the new 'Just One Quote' series within this podcast. This episode focuses on Twelfth Night's Sir Andrew Aguecheek, with possibly the saddest line in all literature.
A 10-minute discussion of how Priestley promotes a sense of social responsibility through the play. The discussion covers all of the major characters, considering how each plays their part in promoting social responsibility.
Some quirky questions are discussed by Mr Kelway's wonderful Upper Sixth English class.
The aim was to draw some specific comparisons and to stretch the students' knowledge in new directions.