In the first half of 2021, with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic still disrupting our normal school life, it was more important than ever to reinforce our sense of community - particularly with the Y7 students, who were new to the Secondary School.
The competencies selected by the English Department for that year group seemed particularly relevant:
In our project Stories and Communities, Y7 read about all the different stories that our communities and cultures are built on, and how they form the foundations for our shared values, beliefs and life lessons. They read the most famous Fairy Tales in different versions, and saw how, according to the varying times and cultural contexts, these tales have been changed to adapt them to specific communities and their respective values.
Next, the groups read both Norse and Greek myths, studying these ancient cultures and communities to understand how they used their stories to explain the world around them, and why they have endured until our time and thus connect us into stronger communities. To experience this for themselves, the Y7 team of students and teachers scoured their homes to find any element that could be perceived as Viking and dressed up as Vikings for their Zoom lessons. It was so much fun to shout like Viking raiders or dance the harvest Viking Farmer dance, or imagine sailing a longship along a fjord!
In the last part of this engaging project, the groups read the popular superhero comics which have inspired the latest generations. In this section they asked themselves: How much of these comics is built on the older stories? And how do these superhero comics help us to understand others and form stronger communities by including everyone? Finally, they created their own superheroes and comics, representing the shared values they appreciated the most in our St. Andrew’s community.
English Language Department
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by Sustentable Digital
