The first Wealden Literary Hub event took place recently at Benenden.
A group of the English A-Level students and I organised the event – with the help of the English Department – as a celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday. We welcomed other A-Level English students from Sutton Valence and The John Wallis Church of England Academy. Throughout the evening we explored Shakespeare’s life and legacy in the form of interactive quizzes, discussions and the performance of a scene in Macbeth.
It was a great experience to delve deeper into Shakespeare’s life, learning more about the context of the time and fun facts on his comedies and tragedies. Towards the end, we conducted a productive debate, in which we discussed whether Shakespeare was ‘ahead of his time’.
It was an enlightening debate, especially with so many different ideas and examples being used from his plays. The performance was also very entertaining to watch overall, especially as someone tried to act as Banquo's ghost! It was a fun event and a great way to get everyone together. We all shared such interesting ideas and perspectives on Shakespeare as a whole, where we all learnt a lot.
Germaine, Six One Student
