Summer Reading List

This time last year we produced a summer reading list for parents (thinking they might need some attention for a change, since we spend much of our time encouraging their children to read). And now here's the 2011 list, with 22 excellent books, including ones by Willy Vlautin, Claire Keegan, Barbara Kingsolver and Fintan O'Toole. Read it below via Issuu (click once for a larger view, another for a full view, and use the arrow keys to turn the pages). Download the document here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More books

The Stoverview

A warm welcome to the blogosphere to The Stoverview, recently set up by our friend Jeremy Stone, shortly taking up a management and teaching post at Stover School in Devon. Among the first posts are thoughts about the value of homework, and on climate change. We'll be following with interest in the months and years ahead...

Book List, 2011-12

The English Department book list for the next academic year can now be accessed here. Parents will shortly be getting the full lists for all subjects and forms. Amazon and the Book Depository are worth investigating for many English books, for substantial savings.

The Actiontrack Week

Here in one post are all Eleanor Dolphin's pieces on the five days of Actiontrack, just completed:

Day 1:
As all 33 of us 4th years gathered in the BSR this morning. I could easily distinguish which people had done this before, the newbies to the year impersonating lost lambs while the rest of us looked on expectantly. We were introduced to the Actiontrack team; Nathan, Molly, Nick and Katie, who will be helping us put together a show. To warm up we played the legendary zip zap boing: it was nice to see that after 2 years I was still just as useless at it. The second half of the morning saw us split into groups where we had to make four inanimate objects out of our own bodies. So, people came up with human swings and blenders. We then had to work a story around these objects and then change the genre of the story to silent movie, sci-fi etc. This really got our imagination and creativity active, I think. At the end of the day we each had to come up with 2 song titles and then come up with lyrics for them.

Day 2:
We started off with a bang today by playing a game called Trinidad and zip zap boing again (hotel, motel and bungalow were introduced today). At the end of yesterday we came up with lyrics for our song titles, the Actiontrack team took our ideas and mashed them into 6 songs: Loose lips, the hero in the dirty tracksuit, hostile room, golden shoes, I’m starting again and black eyes. So for a huge part of the day, we practised the songs and tried to improve them. I think that this part was good fun and that it felt like good progress to all of us. After lunch Katie did a drawing/ visual exercise with us, where each person got a page and drew a squiggly line on it. We all passed our page onto the person next to us and they had to make something out of the lines. You couldn’t use text so the exercise helped us tune in to our visual description rather than explain in words.

Day 3:
Again we ran through the songs this morning and we worked out who the solo singers are going to be. Then Molly got us to do a kind of rhythm and dance workout. Then just before break we all talked about the plot of the play and we looked at the skeleton of the different aspects of the play like the set design, music of the band and choreography. We were each assigned different roles in the play and for the rest of the day Nick and Molly worked with some of us on our scenes as well as the choreography. Others worked on the set design, costume design and the band had their first practice.

Day 4: By today everybody had a job that they had to do; this ranged from set design to costume organising to revising the choreography to learning your lines, and if they’d finished people helped others out with their jobs. We finished preparing the canvas being used on set, now all we had to do was place it on our stage- a tougher job than it sounds. We got scenes 5, 6 and 7 scripted and today was everybody’s last day to learn off the lyrics and lines. The band were very busy practising with the soloists and at the end of the day the set was up and the band’s instruments were moved in and the general feeling was one of pride and that bit by bit our show, which seemed very obscure and patchy in the previous days, was finally starting to come together nicely.

Day 5: Showbuild Day!
It was great to see everyone come in this morning with a smile on their face, determined to give the audience an unforgettable performance this evening. Nick gave us a quick run-through of the day’s events and what had to be done. Everybody was together in the BSR all day today observing how the scenes clicked together, going over technicalities as in lighting, position and cue for performance. There was a great feeling of comradeship in the atmosphere while running through the whole show from 9.00 to 5.30. This show was unusual for both the Actiontrack team and St Columba’s students, as we came up with our plot and dialogue while we were actually on stage over the 4 days this week. This was a very difficult method of acting and it required a lot of determination and concentration from all of us: we weren’t handed the script on day 1, instead we made the script up each day. This evening the show started at 8.15. It was called The Girl in the Golden Shoes and it portrayed the journey of a girl as she discovers the truth of her unchangeable, irrevocable position in a ‘shadow’ world. We put together a total of seven songs for the performance; ‘I’m starting again’, ‘Loose Lips’, ‘Hostile Room’, ‘Black Eyes’, ‘The Hero in the Dirty Tracksuit’, ‘Golden Shoes’ and ‘Dear Jesse’. The soloists were Aifric Tracey, Hugo Hollis, Kezia Wright, Zac Stephenson, Alex Bowring, Sam Harley, Niamh Faulkner, Hamish Law, Pia Klippgen, Catie McGonagle and Maria Coloma. We had Zac Stephenson on the guitar, Mark Agar on the bass, Rachel Rogers on the cello, Annika Franz on the keyboard, Jasmine Blenkins O’Callaghan on the drums. Nathan played the acoustic guitar and I played the piano. I had done a couple of plays before this, but never had any of us taken part in a show quite like this one. I think I speak for everybody in 4th form when I say that we had a ball this week and we would like to thank the whole Actiontrack team; Nick, Molly, Nathan and Katie for everything they did for us.

Actiontrack 2011: the last two days

Eleanor Dolphin concludes her blogging on the Actiontrack Week with the two final days, which concluded with a memorable performance last night (pictured above):

DAY 4:
By today everybody had a job that they had to do; this ranged from set design to costume organising to revising the choreography to learning your lines, and if they’d finished people helped others out with their jobs. We finished preparing the canvas being used on set, now all we had to do was place it on our stage- a tougher job than it sounds. We got scenes 5, 6 and 7 scripted and today was everybody’s last day to learn off the lyrics and lines. The band were very busy practising with the soloists and at the end of the day the set was up and the band’s instruments were moved in and the general feeling was one of pride and that bit by bit our show, which seemed very obscure and patchy in the previous days, was finally starting to come together nicely.

DAY 5: Showbuild Day! It was great to see everyone come in this morning with a smile on their face, determined to give the audience an unforgettable performance this evening. Nick gave us a quick run-through of the day’s events and what had to be done. Everybody was together in the BSR all day today observing how the scenes clicked together, going over technicalities as in lighting, position and cue for performance. There was a great feeling of comradeship in the atmosphere while running through the whole show from 9.00 to 5.30.

This show was unusual for both the Actiontrack team and St Columba’s students, as we came up with our plot and dialogue while we were actually on stage over the 4 days this week. This was a very difficult method of acting and it required a lot of determination and concentration from all of us: we weren’t handed the script on day 1, instead we made the script up each day.

This evening the show started at 8.15. It was called The Girl in the Golden Shoes and it portrayed the journey of a girl as she discovers the truth of her unchangeable, irrevocable position in a ‘shadow’ world. We put together a total of seven songs for the performance; ‘I’m starting again’, ‘Loose Lips’, ‘Hostile Room’, ‘Black Eyes’, ‘The Hero in the Dirty Tracksuit’, ‘Golden Shoes’ and ‘Dear Jesse’. The soloists were Aifric Tracey, Hugo Hollis, Kezia Wright, Zac Stephenson, Alex Bowring, Sam Harley, Niamh Faulkner, Hamish Law, Pia Klippgen, Catie McGonagle and Maria Coloma. We had Zac Stephenson on the guitar, Mark Agar on the bass, Rachel Rogers on the cello, Annika Franz on the keyboard, Jasmine Blenkins O’Callaghan on the drums. Nathan played the acoustic guitar and I played the piano. I had done a couple of plays before this, but never had any of us taken part in a show quite like this one.

I think I speak for everybody in 4th form when I say that we had a ball this week and we would like to thank the whole Actiontrack team; Nick, Molly, Nathan and Katie for everything they did for us.

Sylvia Plath Interview

For our V formers preparing Sylvia Plath for their end of year English exam, here is an interview with the poet from October 1962, full of interesting observations about her own poems and others'.

Actiontrack Diary 2011

Our Transition Year are currently at the mid-point of their Actiontrack Showbuild process, culminating in the show itself on Friday night in the BSR. One of their number, Eleanor Dolphin, is blogging on the experience. Here are her entries for the first three days:-

Day 1:
As all 33 of us 4th years gathered in the BSR this morning, I could easily distinguish which people had done this before, the newbies to the year impersonating lost lambs while the rest of us looked on expectantly. We were introduced to the Actiontrack team; Nathan, Molly, Nick and Katie, who will be helping us put together a show. To warm up we played the legendary zip zap boing: it was nice to see that after 2 years I was still just as useless at it. The second half of the morning saw us split into groups where we had to make four inanimate objects out of our own bodies. So, people came up with human swings and blenders. We then had to work a story around these objects and then change the genre of the story to silent movie, sci-fi etc. This really got our imagination and creativity active, I think. At the end of the day we each had to come up with 2 song titles and then come up with lyrics for them.

Day 2:
We started off with a bang today by playing a game called Trinidad and zip zap boing again (hotel, motel and bungalow were introduced today). At the end of yesterday we came up with lyrics for our song titles, the Actiontrack team took our ideas and mashed them into 6 songs: Loose lips, the hero in the dirty tracksuit, hostile room, golden shoes, I’m starting again and black eyes. So for a huge part of the day, we practised the songs and tried to improve them. I think that this part was good fun and that it felt like good progress to all of us. After lunch Katie did a drawing/ visual exercise with us, where each person got a page and drew a squiggly line on it. We all passed our page onto the person next to us and they had to make something out of the lines. You couldn’t use text so the exercise helped us tune in to our visual description rather than explain in words.

Day 3:
Again we ran through the songs this morning and we worked out who the solo singers are going to be. Then Molly got us to do a kind of rhythm and dance workout. Then just before break we all talked about the plot of the play and we looked at the skeleton of the different aspects of the play like the set design, music of the band and choreography. We were each assigned different roles in the play and for the rest of the day Nick and Molly worked with some of us on our scenes as well as the choreography. Others worked on the set design, costume design and the band had their first practice.

More tomorrow...

TY English Prize Presentation Evening

Congratulations to Jasmine Blenkins O'Callaghan, winner of the English Prize in this year's Transition Year. A full report on the prize presentation evening yesterday is here on the College site, together with a photo show from the Habitat for Humanity trip.

'Home'

Another entry for the Senior Poetry Prize, this time by Olivia Plunket:

'Home'

Here I am myself,

I am only me,

Away from all the clutter,

Here I hold my dreams.

These dreams come in numbers,

Greater than before,

Here was the first and last,

But I will search for more.

The red comes crawling, clinging,

Holding on for life,

The rain comes down but pouring,

Searching for revival.

Here I hold my memories,

Those days from long before,

Here I had my childhood,

And here I lost it all.

Reaching for those keep-sakes,

Wringing out my soul,

Looking for what I’ve lost now,

And then, just finding home.

English Leaving Cert Paper 2

It's all over for our English Leaving Cert candidates this year. They've just emerged from the Sports Hall having completed their literature papers at Higher and Ordinary Level. Again, we concentrate on Higher Level, which 50 of our 55 candidates sat. And all seem to emerge with smiles...

The single text questions on Hamlet were a long-awaited question on revenge, and a character one on Claudius.  The comparative questions on Theme/Issue and Cultural Context would have frightened no-one. The selection of poets was entirely predictable - Dickinson, Yeats, Frost, Boland (there might have been a little kick in the question on the last of those - 'reflective insights' in Boland's poetry may have tested some). There was, however, quite a demanding unseen poem, Leanne O'Sullivan's 'Poetry', full of rich imagery.

At Ordinary Level, all was straightforward: questions on Claudius, Laertes and Horatio, Social Setting and Relationships in the comparative, an extract from Kavanagh's 'A Christmas Childhood' and Hopkins's 'Spring' (as well as Noel Monaghan's 'All Day Long' and Julie O'Callaghan's 'The Net'). The unseen poem was Ted Kooser's 'A Room in the Past'.

Leaving Cert English Paper 1

The first paper in the Leaving Certificate exams, English I, is just complete. 

At Higher Level, which almost all our candidates take, the theme this year was 'Mystery', and the texts were all contemporary ones by Irish writers. All should have proven interesting and stimulating. The first was this piece by Lara Marlowe of the Irish Times - not about French or American political life, but her 'veneration' of cats since she was a child. This was followed by an extract from Colum McCann's "9/11" novel Let the Great World Spin (currently shortlisted for the 2011 IMPAC award). It was the moment Philippe Petit stepped onto the cable between the Twin Towers, an event memorably dealt with by the brilliant documentary Man on Wire (see clip below). The third text was another piece of recent Irish fiction, an extract from Kevin Barry's short story 'Wintersongs', from his collection There Are Little Kingdoms (reviewed here last year by John Self in his Asylum blog, who called it 'charming, funny and assured').

The Higher Level composition list also caused no consternation for our own candidates. Personal writing of one kind or another was to the fore, including a discursive piece on modern technology's impact on young people's lives (lots of writing about Facebook, presumably), a straightforward descriptive essay on 24 hours in the life of a city, and a short story question on, of course, mystery.

The reaction was positive, and now it's back to the books for the literature paper tomorrow.

Exams

All the best to our VI and III formers who are now sitting their English 1 exams. Paper analysis here later and tomorrow.

Leaving Cert preparation

For all of you working hard for your Leaving Cert literature paper over this weekend, here are two quick links-

• our list of Hamlet resources, including revision podcasts and a quotation auto-test,
• the Patterns of Poetry podcasts, to freshen up your thoughts about both prescribed and unseen poetry.
• Eavan Boland resources.
• Yeats: podcast on 'The Wild Swans at Coole'.
  

'Moscow'

Igor Verkhovskiy was awarded a Commendation for his entries to the Senior Poetry Prize. Here is one, on his home city.

'Moscow' by Igor Verkhovskiy

My low house is hunchbacked and withered
My old dog is long dead and gone
On the Moscow streets hung and withered
I was promised to die by God

I love this city of rags and rages
Though in dirt it drowns and flops
Golden, drowsy Asia
Has ingrown on the churchtops

When the crescent at night is shining
When he's shining Devi knows how
I would walk with my head low lying
Through a sidestreet to a pub known and foul

Noise and brawl in this lair brooding
And as night flights from dusk through dawn
I read poems to hookers
Drink with those that should make me yawn

My heart's pacing faster and faster
And it's now that I say out of turn
Out of you lot I'm the lost one
I am at point of no return

Transition Year English Evening, 2011

Last night in the Big Schoolroom our Transition Year completed their course with the annual English Evening. Our guest was Mr Trevor White, Old Columban, founder of The Dubliner magazine, author of Kitchen Con and The Dubliner Diaries, and currently establishing The Little Museum of Dublin.

Seven pupils read pieces from their Work Portfolios, and afterwards Trevor White commented on each. Eleanor Dolphin's 'A New Dawn' was a memory of her primary school, and she "captured particularly well that phenomenon" of how our schools become smaller and different places as we move on in life. Catie McGonagle's rhythmic 'The Earthquake', about her Californian school had "terrific descriptions, with humour and colour." Jasmine Blenkins O'Callaghan came next with her evocative piece 'Being Underwater': she read particularly well "with a beautiful speaking voice, a rare gift."

Hamish Law followed, with a story set in Africa, 'A New Dawn', showing "great imagination and descriptions." Aifric Tracey's 'The Day of the Funeral' was "brave, touching and sensitive." Kezia Wright's story 'The Watcher' was "outstanding - you should take your writing very seriously." Finally, Zach Stephenson read his discomfiting and sharply told story 'The Kenyan Tortoise', which Trevor said was his favourite of all, "a cross between Will Self and Quentin Tarantino" and the result of a great talent. He added that he was tremendously impressed by the "humbling quality" of what he had heard, and his main advice was: keep writing.

He then talked to us about his own career, from leaving SCC to do Theatre Studies at TCD, and then his various ventures and jobs as a journalist, including Food and Wine magazine and The Dubliner, now moving onto The Little Museum. He said to the pupils that they should be aware that they were very privileged to be at SCC, benefitting from its teaching, small size and general culture.

Premier Awards (more than 80%) were awarded to Jasmine, Eleanor, Hamish and Kezia.