Mythology with year 7 at the start of a new academic year is one of my favourite things to teach! All the students thoroughly enjoy learning the meaning behind myths, how they’re constructed, and how we can study them to write our own stories.

We cover Greek, Norse, Egyptian and Arabian mythology; comparing the differences and similarities between myths from all over the world, and exploring how we can use these stories to influence our own writing.

My current year 7s (07f/En2) have recently been planning and writing their own myths, with original characters, storylines, and replicating the structure of a classic myth using genre markers. They were given a stimulus image to help them create ideas and use it as inspiration for characters.

As well as writing their own myths, we looked at the history of the Olympics. The students then wrote poems in pairs and in class we held a poetry competition allowing each student to perform their poem to the class, and then have a chance of receiving a gold, silver or bronze award (unfortunately no real medals, but plenty of reward points handed out!). The whole class produced some excellent work, and all enjoyed supporting their classmates and hearing a range of poetry.

I have been extremely impressed with my class so far, and I look forward to continuing mythology and seeing what creative and inspiring things they come up with next.