The life-giving power of literature
This week at the Prep School we have been enjoying one of our Reading Weeks. A week in which we sharpen our focus on the absolute fundamental importance of children learning to read and developing a love of reading. The impact of reading reaches far beyond the children’s time at the Prep and reading is considered a significant indicator of how well they will do in exams such as their GCSEs as well as their future economic success and mental wellbeing. Therefore all schools have a moral responsibility to champion reading.
This week the children have enjoyed pop-up reading cafes, book swaps, reading quizzes, lucky listener opportunities and our younger pupils came in today in their pyjamas clutching their favourite bedtime stories!
When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young. – Maya Angelou
As a young teenager I was transported from our family home in a quiet leafy village in Lincolnshire to the hustling store of Maya Angelou’s grandmother Annie in the Arkansas town of Stamps. As I entered Maya’s life through her first autobiographical book ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ my understanding of the world opened up and the sounds, smells and sights of the dusty streets of Stamps were captivating. Although I knew about the concept of racism through my history lessons at school I actually had very little understanding of what it might be like to experience those racial divisions, or to live in a community that was segregated. It wasn’t until I was immersed in Maya Angelou’s autobiographies, and believe me I read every page (some parts twice) of her first 5 autobiographies, that I began to feel the injustices rather than just appreciate them. But Maya’s writing was also uplifting and empowering as she allowed me into her adventures as a touring performer and the joy she felt when she became a mother. Books contain magic that even the best films cannot quite replicate because it is the interplay between the author’s words and the reader’s imagination. I still feel that a physical paper book contains more magic than a digital version. The book becomes an artefact that is so much bigger than the number of pages or the weight in your hand.
As we look towards Armistice Day, a time of poignant reflection, even though more than a hundred years have passed, the writings of those that experienced the First World War give us a way into their soul-searching. Wilfred Owen’s experiences of fighting in France left him suffering from what became known as having shell-shock and after a time of recuperating, alongside Siegfried Sassoon, he found his poet’s voice. Sadly when he returned to France he died only a week before the Armistice. The cruelness of war and the despair felt by the soldiers is palpable in his poem 1914.
War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art’s ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love’s wine’s thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
This morning, our Year 2 pupils laid a wreath and placed crosses by the War Memorial at the end of Middleton Hall Lane. This tradition has spanned many years, with
Later on this morning, at 10.45am, our Year 2 School Council representatives and a few of their peers went back to the War Memorial for the Brentwood War Memorial Remembrance Service, with other local schools, the Mayor of Brentwood and Reverend Paul Hamilton.
On Sunday, our Cadets at the Senior School will join the Remembrance Parade and the Revd McConnaughie will lead our Remembrance Service on Monday which will be live streamed for those in our wider community. The link for the live stream is here. On countless occasions, we are awed by the pupils’ capacity for kindness and empathy. They feel deeply the plights of others and give their all to helping others.
I am delighted to congratulate Ebony in Year 5 on her receipt of a Prep Head’s Award. Ebony was nominated for the award because she epitomises the principled characteristics that we strive for all Prep pupils to possess. She empathises with others and goes out of her way to encourage other pupils in a positive way, empowering them to want to give unknown things a go.
