St Edmund's

Today, nervously at first, I taught my first classroom lesson in eighteen months.

It was a real pleasure to work with the talented Year 8 English Class on Shelley’s famous poem “Ozymandias”.

To be honest, I was amazed (and a little intimidated) by their level of understanding and insight.

It felt more like fronting an A-Level English Literature group and they worked me very hard!

We looked at the political context in England 1815-20, the inspiration for Shelley’s poem and then conducted a line-by-line critical analysis.

The pupils demonstrated their impressive knowledge of the sonnet form, iambic pentameters, irony and alliteration.

We ended with a profound discussion on mortality, time and transitory nature of political power.

Well done to the group for their extraordinary work!