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King Lear was the subject of a special sixth form study day on Wednesday 4 December, with four sessions on different aspects of the play - run by visiting practitioners and university lecturers.

'This is the first day of this kind we have organised and it will really help students with their critical thinking about the play,' said Chris Brown, Head of English. 'We hope some of our A Level students will be going on to study English at university and these sessions will give them a real taste of what university-level study is going to be like.’

The four sessions during the day were:

• Staging King Lear – Dr Derek Dunne, Globe Theatre (pictured right)
• Shakespeare’s language in King Lear – Mary McNulty, Globe Education, University of Kent
• Women in King Lear – Dr Jane Kingsley-Smith, Roehampton University
• Tragedy and King Lear – Dr Russ McDonald, Goldsmith’s University

'Think more deeply'

‘This kind of day is useful because it shows students that Shakespeare is not difficult – he doesn’t use very technical language,’ said Dr David Dunne, Teaching Associate at Shakespeare’s Globe, who led a session on staging King Lear. ‘What Shakespeare is doing is achieving certain effects using the same language we use today.’

‘We’ve seen King Lear on stage and this session helped us understand the themes more deeply,’ said Neelima Noor of Year 13. Mola Asenguah of Year 12 said: ‘I really enjoyed Dr Dunne’s session. It made me think about how I can study texts at a deeper level.’

‘Language is what it feels like in the mouth as well as what it looks like on the page,’ said Mary McNulty, Associate Lecturer in Drama Studies, Kent University (pictured left), who led an interactive session on Shakespeare’s language.

The day was organised with the help of David Workman and attended by sixth form students from Harris Girls' Academy East Dulwich and Harris Academy Beckenham.