ENGLISH

YEAR 10 LITERATURE POETRY

Barren Wastelands, Brother

By Alice C Fletcher

Welcome little stranger,

Born between the danger.

Back in the barren wasteland,

My heart becomes your arrow.

            Becomes your bagair

                        Becomes your baile

                                    Brother becomes my bygone.

Behind the broken branches of forgotten dreams,

Barren wastelands bowl to its belittle,

Brother the baile-mòr becons.

bury do I the battered and bruised seed of your affection.

Brother be bound in blood.

Belting your buckles and break my bones,

Bestowing your affairs on loathed bloodied sister,

Because you can.

Absence of green becomes the bushy background,

Wasteland blinds the bleary-eyed.

Burnt in the absence fear and fire,

Bird-like wings barricade the beams,

youthful bliss,

balgan.

Be blind

            Be brash

                        Be brotherly 

Bestow your lust dear brother,

Is your belief where it is now?

Be seen the shaking and bewitching of barks.

you bind and bite my broken heart,

blame the stains on a pomegranate.

Broken bathrooms and british bulldog,

Busy buses bulging and breaking broken hearts.

Because bundles of broken bread, bàirlinn.

Be because bleached babbitts, bàirlinn.

            Be because Brazen-faced bees, bàirlinn.

Becomes something within the ashes of bloodied wasteland. 

Begone bygone!

Become something your not brother,

With bàinidh breach the barbed wire and bohemian belts backing the feeling of truth.

Break barriers

 burn barns

 break bread.

perfect creature buried,

Buried in the blistered breathtaking broken hearted,

Lay I busted because of brotherly babyshness.

Son of gentle cathva,

Wasteland becomes a brother's bottomless pit.

The end

YEAR 9 EAL EXCURSION

On Wednesday 29 November, our class of Year 9 EAL saw the play ‘A Christmas Carol’ with our teacher, Mrs Howard, in the city. During Term 4, we studied Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ and the different themes of this complex story. Mrs Howard was very proud of our achievements and brought us to Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre to see the Old Vic production of the famous Christmas story.

In the morning, our class took the train from McKinnon station after being driven in Mr Bridges’ shuttle bus. We had lunch in the Melbourne Central Food Court, where some students chose Mrs Howard’s lunch! We then walked to the theatre (in typical Melbourne rain!) and as we arrived, we were immediately immersed in the Christmas spirit and the atmosphere of the story; some cast members were amongst the audience and playing various instruments, while others were throwing oranges into the audience to make everybody laugh. 

When the lights went down and the play began, everybody was mesmerized by the sweet sound of the bells on stage and consumed by the Christmas spirit. The play was magical. The lights were spectacular; every detail on the stage was made to make us feel a part of the play. We felt like we were accompanying Ebeneezer Scrooge, on his famous journey of redemption, in real life. It was fascinating to see how the production deviated from the book yet stayed true to the tale’s themes.

This excursion will forever be a cherished memory and our class is still talking about it! We’d like to thank Mr Florence for the support of the English team in enabling us to see this amazing production after studying ‘A Christmas Carol’. 

Isaure Piganeau (Year 9)

END OF YEAR MESSAGE

The English team would like to wish all McKinnon families a happy and safe holiday period. Enjoy the opportunity to relax with a good book. A reminder to senior students that it is an expectation that you use the summer holidays to read your English texts before the 2024 school year commences. We will not be reading every word of these in class and it is often difficult to find the time to catch up on this reading once the school year has begun. 

Students in Years 7 - 9 may like to take a similar approach with their holiday reading. You can also find an extensive list of recommended reading on the school’s library website.

Thank you to all students for their work in English this year. We look forward to perusing this year’s edition of the Thistle yearbook for a detailed celebration of the experiences and achievements in the English faculty.

Happy reading.

Sam Florence

English Manager