On Wednesday 25th September some 40 sixth-formers from local schools arrived to take part in the inaugural event of the Kent English Excellence Network (KEEN). KEEN has been established by the School of English to offer support and added-value to member schools, for example by providing bespoke study days and other events tailored to their particular needs, as well as offering access to special extension activities and events designed for very able sixth-formers.
Students from Simon Langton Boys’ Grammar School, Dover Boys’ Grammar School, Harvey Grammar School and Bexley Grammar School enjoyed a sandwich lunch before taking part in the first session of the afternoon, focussing on the unprepared analysis and discussion of poetry. Led by Dr Sarah James, the students were encouraged to think about how best to approach unseen texts before trying their skills on Wordsworth’s sonnet ‘The World is Too Much With Us’, and ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’ by W. B. Yeats. After a break, Dr Harry Newman and Dr Mike Collins went toe-to-toe in a critical theory battle over Yeats’s ‘Sailing to Byzantium’, with Dr Newman offering a psychoanalytical reading of the poem, while Dr Collins countered with an energetic Marxist approach. The students quickly joined in the debate, and final honours in the stand-off went to Dr Newman, despite Dr Collins’s compelling counter-arguments. The students left thoroughly energised by their experience, and the school-teachers who had accompanied their students gave very positive feedback, praising the event for being simultaneously genuinely interesting, and a great deal of fun.