Every summer term BLF’s Education Programme offers a week of eye-opening talks, workshops, and interactive experiences. Teachers, course leaders, and parents or carers who home educate children can register and book for events.
BOOK EDUCATION PROGRAMME TICKETS
Rebels & Rulebreakers
Friday 11 June 2027, KS3 and 4 English Literature, English Language and History
What does it take to challenge something you believe is wrong, and what can it cost to refuse to accept the world as it is? In Jane Eyre, students will debate the choices Jane makes as she refuses the life Victorian society expects of her, before considering
why Charlotte Brontë chose to create a heroine so determined to decide her own future. They’ll go behind the familiar story of Nelson Mandela and apartheid to the gruelling 27 years he spent in prison, exploring how he held on to his political purpose through
confinement. They’ll also meet Noor Inayat Khan, who became a secret wireless operator in occupied France during the Second World War, transmitting messages while hunted by the Gestapo, and discover how her remarkable story was almost forgotten before being
brought back into the public eye years later. Finally, students will discover how poetry has been used to challenge injustice, before turning their own ideas into words of resistance.
The World We Live In
Monday 14 June 2027, KS3 and 4 Citizenship, History and Media
How do we make sense of a world where news, ideas and information can reach us in seconds? Students will explore how broadcasting transformed the way people experienced events beyond their own communities, and how new technologies and algorithms continue to
shape what we see today. They’ll also look at how borders and disputes over territory have shaped major world events, from the Partition of India and Pakistan to conflicts involving Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Palestine. Students will then explore who
tells these stories and how. They’ll hear from a correspondent about reporting major events around the world and consider how a journalist’s choices can influence the story we receive. Finally, they’ll discover how George Orwell’s 1984 gave us words and ideas
that have travelled far beyond the novel, asking why terms such as Big Brother, Newspeak and ‘Orwellian’ still help us talk about power, information and the world around us today.
Gothic, Monsters & Dystopia
Tuesday 15 June 2027, KS3 and 4 English Literature and English Language
Why do the things that frighten us change over time? Through Dracula and Frankenstein, students will explore how Gothic writers turned the fears of their own times into fiction, and why these stories continue to be reimagined by new generations. Students will
investigate how Dracula has changed across 130 years and put Frankenstein on trial, weighing the evidence to decide who bears responsibility for what happens in the novel. They’ll then move from Gothic into dystopian fiction, exploring how fear can come from
surveillance, technology or society itself, before taking control of a new society and making decisions about how it should work. As the consequences of their choices unfold, they must decide whether they have created a safer world or a dystopia of their own.
Manga, Anime & Visual Storytelling
Wednesday 16 June 2027, KS3 and 4 English Literature, English Language and Art
From manga pages to anime screens, Japanese visual storytelling has captured audiences around the world. Students will discover where manga and anime came from, what the terms actually mean and just how varied these forms can be, testing their own assumptions
as they decide what is and isn’t manga or anime. They’ll enter the worlds of Studio Ghibli to uncover some of the Japanese culture and storytelling traditions behind its films, before getting inside a manga or graphic novel to investigate how pictures and
panels shape what we notice, how quickly we read and what we imagine between the images. Finally, guided by a manga artist, students will explore how expression, pose and appearance can reveal character, using these techniques to create an original character
of their own.
Performance Poetry
Thursday 17 June 2027, KS3 and 4 English Literature, English Language and Spoken Language
What happens when a poem leaves the page and is performed aloud? Students will experience William Blake transformed through rap, spoken word and beatboxing, discovering how a contemporary performance can change the way we hear poetry written more than two centuries
ago. They’ll also hear sharply different accounts of war, from poetry that presents conflict as glorious to writing that confronts its human cost, and discover how differently poets have written about the same experience. Students will then put their own ideas
into words. In a mass poetry workshop, they’ll write about something they feel strongly about and hear lines from across the auditorium build into a call and response performance. They’ll also draw on their own places, cultures and languages to write about
what home means to them, with contributions from across the room brought together in a final performance.
Shaking Up Shakespeare
Friday 18 June 2027, KS3 and 4 English Literature, English Language and Drama
How much of Shakespeare is actually there on the page, and how much is created in performance? Students will see the same scene played in strikingly different ways, discovering how an actor’s delivery or a director’s decisions can change what an audience sees
in a character. They’ll then take control themselves, deciding how particular moments should be performed. Students will go behind the scenes of Shakespeare’s theatre to discover how his company created everything from thunderstorms to ghostly appearances
without modern technology, before making staging decisions of their own. They’ll also explore how the sonnet has survived and changed across centuries and contribute to a new sonnet together, before turning to Macbeth to debate whether the witches seal his
fate or Macbeth brings about his own downfall.
Tickets are now available to book for you and your students: BOOK YOUR TICKETS