The new edition of the A Level English magazine eMag is out now. There are some great articles, including a linguistic analysis of President Trump’s inauguration speech. You can read the print copy in the library or check out our online subscription (with extra features). Just click here and login with the username WGHS and password L1brary.
Miss Lees
The University of Birmingham has produced an interactive study skills website that takes sixth form students through the lifecycle of a project; from planning and research, through to final draft and presentation of the work. The materials have been designed to help support students with their sixth form work while simultaneously developing the independent learning skills needed for higher education study. To find out more visit www.skills4uni.bham.ac.uk. There is also the skills4study campus which provides information about preparing for all aspects of university life.
The annual Year 12 HE Fair took place in school on Tuesday the 4th of April. We had representatives from 28 universities and businesses in attendance, as well as 15 Old Girls who left in 2016. The event also included a talk for parents from Sarah Fullwood of Aston University, who covered the application process and student finance. Feedback so far has been really positive, but I am always looking for comments and suggestions of how to improve events, so please get in touch, especially if you are currently in Yr 11 and have a good idea of some institutions you’d like to see represented next year.
Thanks to all of the people who took part this year. It was particularly great to see so many of last year’s leavers doing such a wide range of subjects and enjoying life after WGHS!
Miss Lees
So we’ve finally reached the end of January and should be at the stage where we’re now remembering to write ‘2017’ instead of ‘2016’ on everything! Some exciting events are going on today which I will blog about in more detail soon.
First of all the library is helping to run a webinar for A level History students in conjunction with Channel Talent and UCL about the concept of the American Dream:
“We are all familiar with the term ‘American Dream’, though we may have noticed that it’s used to mean sometimes quite different things. Is it about material success –a rags to riches story of what can be done ‘only in America’? Or is it about ‘freedom’ and ‘equality’– values that are sometimes imagined to be uniquely or particularly invested in the US system of government?
This lecture examines the origins of the term ‘American Dream’ and asks why it has had such purchase in American society. Dr Adam Smith from UCL will show that the term ‘American Dream’ was only invented in the 1930s, but will begin much earlier – back with the first Puritan settlers – because although the term was new when it was coined during the Great Depression it drew on a long history of thinking about what made America ‘special’.
This evening a group of us are visiting Wolverhampton Grammar School to attend their ‘Brave Women in Fiction’ author event featuring Sara Barnard, Katherine Webber, Melinda Salisbury and Catherine Doyle. The library is also hosting the first meeting of the LGBT+ Society on Friday lunchtime and we have Yr 7 book club and Excelsior meetings coming up!
We have recently donated 10 boxes of old library stock to The Rural Enterprise Academy at Rodbaston Hall in Staffordshire. This new Free School is setting up a library from scratch with no funding so I was happy to be able to help, and it meant that we could have a good clear out of unwanted books!
Miss Lees