One of the many pleasures of bringing up a family is the opportunity it gives to revisit the books of one’s youth. The tastes of the current generation don’t exactly mirror those of four decades ago, but it’s good to see many of the books I enjoyed all those years ago still at the top of the reading lists. Flat Stanley and Stig of the Dump remain firm favourites, and I am delighted to see the current revival in all things Paddington. A few years ago our daughter was thrilled when I read her A Bear Called Paddington and we as a family have, like everyone else, greatly enjoyed both the Paddington films. Alice in Wonderland and The Hobbit retain their hold on young minds, as do Enid Blyton and, most assuredly, Roald Dahl. When I interview Year 6 pupils and ask them who their favourite author is, Roald Dahl is invariably the name that comes up most often.
Many other writers do, however, now seem largely forgotten. I once tried to read Rosemary Sutcliffe’s Eagle of the Ninth to my children. This was a book I had found breathlessly gripping when I read it at primary school, but they found it too slow and wordy. I understood what they meant. The vocabulary used by Sutcliffe is incredibly complex, begging the question whether children today are exposed to the same range of language. As a child I was mainly drawn to historical fiction and, as well as devouring Sutcliffe’s entire oeuvre, plunged deeply into G.A. Henty, Geoffrey Trease and Cynthia Harnett. Who reads them today? I was also drawn to the strange dystopias of John Christopher, especially his Tripods series, and, like so many children, found the Sherlock Holmes stories a source of endless pleasure.
I was reflecting on this today when I introduced our guest speaker at Upper School Prize Giving, Jo Cotterill. We have two of Jo’s books in the Ratcliffe Library, donated by Jo on previous visits to the school. As I mention in my video message today, I am currently reading her acclaimed novel of 2016, A Library of Lemons, a poignant story that explores the grief of its heroine following her mother’s death and how she copes with this through the magic of reading and friendship. It’s a wonderful, beautifully written novel that I can thoroughly recommend. Earlier in her life, before devoting herself to full-time writing, Jo was a teacher, and it shows in the way she understands children’s worlds and the challenges they face growing up today.
Our English department and Ratcliffe librarian, Damian Walsh, are tireless in their efforts to encourage OLA’s pupils to fall in love with the many wonderful children’s authors writing today, some of whom live in the Oxford area and have visited us during our annual Festival of Reading. Julia Golding and Katherine Rundell have both spoken at the school in recent years and enthused the young audiences visiting OLA from local primary schools. The library is a bright, warm and welcoming environment and is always well-used, both at lunchtimes and as part of English lessons. I was delighted this week, when interviewing a prospective pupil, that she mentioned the library as being one of the main reasons why she wants to come to OLA.
In recent years some of the best public examination results we have achieved, both at GCSE and A Level, have been in English Literature. It is very pleasing to see how our pupils are responding to the excellent teaching they are getting in this area, often gaining grades well above their baseline ability. These results are, I am convinced, in no small measure assisted by the school’s culture of reading and the seriousness with which the written word is taken at OLA. Not only are the classic writers of the past celebrated, but pupils have the opportunity to hear directly from living authors how they go about the business of writing novels. This is a wonderful opportunity for us all which I am proud to see happening in our school.