It was inspiring to join the Year 13 English Literature A level class on Tuesday of this week and see how well the students were doing under the exemplary teaching of Mr Dawson – one of our top and most experienced teachers at BMS. 

The students had just completed an essay task and one of the students’ essays had been identified as an exemplary response, so had been photocopied and shared and discussed by the group; the class had identified the successful literary points made against the clear examination criteria and mark scheme. The lesson was further unpicking the students’ understanding of The Great Gatsby and how Fitzgerald was portraying one of the key characters in this celebrated work – a work that most consider has acquired a mythical status in American literary history, as the ‘great American novel’

If you are not aware of the story presented in the novel, young, handsome and fabulously rich, Jay Gatsby is the bright star of the Jazz Age, but as writer Nick Carraway is drawn into the decadent orbit of his Long Island mansion, where the party never seems to end, he finds himself faced by the mystery of Gatsby’s origins and desires. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life, Gatsby is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon, this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald brilliantly captures both the disillusionment of post-war America and the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth and status. But he does more than render the essence of a particular time and place, for – in chronicling Gatsby’s tragic pursuit of his dream – Fitzgerald re-creates the universal conflict between illusion and reality.

It was great to hear the students’ contributions and see how well they are doing at this highest level of learning in the school.