Thursday 28 April 2016

More notes now up for all NQ classes! Good Luck!

A very best of luck to you all in your exams: I have no doubt that, with continued revision and hard work, you will all do well. Please remember that you can contact me via the blog comments section or via the email link in the profile section at any time if you need help.
It has been a pleasure teaching you all this year,
Ms B.

Monday 11 April 2016

School Closure- notes and work for S4/S5/S6 classes.

 The school hopes to be open tomorrow but I am aware that some of you will be anxious due to impending exams and that we are all a little short for time as it is. As a result, I will continue to put work up here while I cannot see you. Please use the e-mail on the profile link to send any questions or work to me.


S4A1- Talks will be performed as soon as we return to school. We may need to hold some assessments at breaks and lunch to free up time.

I have put up notes for Hathaway on the 4A1 Duffy poetry page for you. Please use these notes to annotate your poem and fill in your overview sheet for all poems completed so far. Overview and Themes sheets can be found at a link at the bottom of the Duffy notes page.

Once you have completed that, you can attempt the following essay question on 'Lord of The Flies':
Choose a novel which has a key incident.
Give a brief account of the incident, and by referring to appropriate techniques, show how this incident is important to the text as a whole


S5B3- You should have completed the word-choice and imagery work and your essay for 'All that Glisters' for today. If you can, please get a friend or class-mate to read over your essay and peer-assess it for you. Try to improve it based on your peer-assessment.
You should also read over 'Bold Girls' revision notes on blog.

S5B2 (Ms Cobb's class)- Read over 'Bold Girls' notes on blog and make revision notes from these.


Higher- S5A1. We will now be concentrating on 'Cone Gatherers' revision. Please read over the notes on this blog to revise and then attempt the following practice paper below. Be ready to hand in answers on Friday:


Text 5

Prose

The Cone-Gatherers by Robin Jenkins
This extract is taken from Chapter Four. Duror has gone to the Big House to see Lady
Runcie-Campbell.

Lady Runcie-Campbell was in the office at the front of the house writing letters. When
he knocked, she bade him enter in her clear courteous musical voice.
A stranger, hearing her, would have anticipated some kind of loveliness in so charming a
speaker; he might not, however, have expected to find such outstanding beauty of face
and form married to such earnestness of spirit; and he would assuredly have been both
startled and impressed.
Duror, who knew her well, had been afraid that in her presence he might be shamed or
inspired into abandoning his scheme against the cone-gatherers. In spite of her clothes,
expensive though simple, of her valuable adornments such as earrings, brooches, and
rings, and of her sometimes almost mystical sense of responsibility as a representative of
the ruling class, she had an ability to exalt people out of their humdrum selves. Indeed,
Duror often associated religion not with the smell of pinewood pews or of damp Bibles,
but rather with her perfume, so elusive to describe. Her father the judge had
bequeathed to her a passion for justice, profound and intelligent; and a determination to
see right done, even at the expense of rank or pride. Her husband Sir Colin was orthodox,
instinctively preferring the way of a world that for many generations had allowed his
family to enjoy position and wealth. Therefore he had grumbled at his wife’s
conscientiousness, and was fond of pointing out, with affection but without sympathy, the
contradiction between her emulation of Christ and her eminence as a baronet’s wife.
She would have given the cone-gatherers the use of the beach-hut, if Duror had not
dissuaded her; and she had not forgotten to ask him afterwards what their hut was like.
He had had to lie.
Now, when he was going to lie again, this time knowing it would implicate her in his
chosen evil, he felt that he was about to commit before her eyes an obscene gesture,
such as he had falsely accused the dwarf of making. In the sunny scented room
therefore, where the happy voices of the cricket players on the lawn could be heard, he
suddenly saw himself standing up to the neck in a black filth, like a stags’ wallowing pool
deep in the wood. High above the trees shone the sun and everywhere birds sang; but
this filth, as he watched, crept up until it entered his mouth, covered his ears, blinded
his eyes, and so annihilated him. So would he perish, he knew; and somewhere in the
vision, as a presence, exciting him so that his heart beat fast, but never visible, was a
hand outstretched to help him out of that mire, if he wished to be helped.
He saw her hand with its glittering rings held out to invite him to sit down.
“Good morning, Duror,” she said, with a smile. “Isn’t it just splendid?”
“Yes, my lady.”
She looked at him frankly and sympathetically: it was obvious she attributed his subdued
tone to sorrow over his wife. If at the same time she noticed with surprise that he hadn’t
shaved, it did not diminish her sympathy, as it would have her husband’s.
“How is Mrs. Duror?” she asked gently.
“Not too well, I’m sorry to say, my lady. This spell of fine weather has upset her. She
asked me to thank you for the flowers.”
She was so slim, golden-haired, and vital, that her solicitude for Peggy gripped him like a
fierce cramp in his belly.
She noticed how pale he had turned, how ill he looked.
“I often think of your poor wife, Duror,” she said.
She glanced at her husband’s portrait in uniform on the desk in front of her.
Duror could not see the photograph from where he sat, but he could see clearly enough in
his imagination the original, as gawky as she was beautiful, as glum as she was gay, and as
matter-of-fact as she was compassionate.
“This war,” she went on quickly, “with its dreadful separations has shown me at least
what she has missed all these years. Something has come between us and the things we
love, the things on which our faith depends: flowers and dogs and trees and friends.
She’s been cut off so much longer.”

Questions

29. look at lines 1—19.
By referring to at least two examples, analyse how Jenkins’s use of language creates
a positive impression of lady Runcie-Campbell.       (4)
           
30. look at lines 23—43.
By referring to two examples, analyse how the writer uses language to convey the
contrast between Duror and lady Runcie-Campbell.   (4)

31.look at lines 50—53.
Explain why lady Runcie-Campbell now feels more able to identify with Peggy’s situation. (2)

32. In the novel, Duror is presented not just as an evil character, but one who might be
worthy of some sympathy.
With reference to this extract and elsewhere in the novel, explain how both aspects of Duror’s character are portrayed. (10)