Relationships are tough. Teaching students about relationships is even tougher.

Being human means being aware of attraction, beauty and social norms. It also means that we have to realise that to a large degree beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

These issues, plus such factors as the multi-facetedness of beauty and the vast range of ways there are of being attractive, requires that we approach each issue from a variety of different angles.

Unfortunately this in turn can give us the problem of each of us having differing (and even contradictory) points of view. There are no set answers – but there are possible answers.

And it gets tougher. When we get to the field of social influences and social relationships there are so many different approaches and so many different views that it can get to the stage that the whole topic seems impossible.

Being yourself, having good positive relationships, acknowledging both rights and responsibilities, avoiding a life dominated by peer pressure, understanding different sexual orientations… these are all vital but complex issues.

So, to make the teaching of social relationship issues throughout the school a simpler and more consistent process, we have produced a course book on social relationships which can be used throughout the school with the assurance of continuity of message at each stage.

The book, Sex and Sensibility: a Sex and Relationships Course for Secondary Schools, is available both in photocopiable form and as a volume that can be loaded onto the school network, so that only one copy is needed.

The volume is intended for use by teachers not only of PSHE, but also biology, sociology, art, science and literature, incorporating as it does everything from key discussion points on the social effects of sexual behaviour to sex in the media, from sex and biology to Shakespeare’s “True Face of Beauty” sonnet and a mystery love letter.

Indeed whether one wishes to look at branding, personality, the law, health or any other matter in this field, it is covered here.

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/pshe/T1760.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1760EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 754 8

Prices

  • Photocopiable report: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • CD with school-wide rights: £24.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Both the Ring Binder and the CD £31.94 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1760emn

JAN LEVER EDUCATION CONSULTANCY

Jan Lever Education Consultancy are a team of dedicated professionals who specialize in Curriculum Development, Education Consultancy, PSHE, Religious Education and Sex Education. Jan Lever Education consultancy offer the new Discovery Scheme of Work for Religious Education in primary schools. Which is a comprehensive enquiry-based, teaching programme for Religious Education for Years 1-6. Also the new Jigsaw PSHE Scheme of Work, which is a comprehensive resource that integrates the national PSHE Education Framework, emotional literacy and social skills development into a one lesson a week programme of study for every year group from Reception to Y6.

Website: www.janlevereducationconsultancy.com

JIGSAW PSHE

Jigsaw PSHE is a comprehensive PSHE Scheme of Work for the whole Primary School. This complete resource contains PSHE Lesson Plans, PSHE teaching resources, original songs, assemblies, Weekly Behaviour Focus and more. SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) development opportunities are mapped throughout Jigsaw. Its mission is to support very busy teachers to deliver high-quality Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (as well as all the other things Jigsaw aims to convey) to the children in their schools; to bring fun and creativity into PSHE Education whilst ensuring a developmental and progressive curriculum. Jigsaw offers the mindful approach to PSHE.

Website: www.jigsawpshe.com

DISCOVERY RE

DISCOVERY RE

Discovery RE is a comprehensive and original set of medium-term lesson plans for Religious Education for the whole Primary School. It fulfils statutory RE requirements and follows Ofsted recommendations. SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) development opportunities are mapped throughout and enhances children’s learning, whilst encouraging the celebration of diversity.

Discovery RE provides the overall structure, medium-term planning and approach for RE for the whole school and also gives an assessment framework with levelled marking criteria. Teachers have the flexibility to choose which religions to teach when and supports teachers by cutting planning time.

Website: www.discoveryschemeofwork.com

 

 

 

Is Shakespeare in a comic still Shakespeare?

Shakespeare is full of paradoxes. He wrote for a mass public but has become high culture, didn’t keep his manuscripts yet First Folios are now priceless, was a glove maker’s son but understood kings and courtiers, was a social outsider who became part of the establishment.

Genius leaps boundaries and it is surely Shakespeare’s ability to mix the high with the low that is one of the reasons his work has lasted through four centuries and is still able to find new audiences and fresh interpretation. He was at root a popular entertainer. He wrote as much to please the groundlings as the nobility and in late Tudor times a third of all Londoners visited the theatre every month. People flocked to see his plays in the same numbers they hustled to see bear baiting, cock fights and duels – often in the same theatres and on the same bill.

So the idea of presenting his work in comic book format wouldn’t have seemed that strange to him. If it were merely the etiolated expression of a long ago elite culture, it wouldn’t have survived. His plays are full of the fizz, crudity and knockabout associated with traditional comic art – and much of his work balances the austere and grand with humour. Lear has his fool, Macbeth’s murder of Duncan is followed by the drunken Porter and Juliet’s expressions of love are offset by Mercutio’s obscene raillery.

The comic book format isn’t just another medium through which to present Shakespeare’s work. It happens to be a particularly good one precisely because inherently visual. A live performance is always the best way to understand Shakespeare’s genius, but an illustrated presentation gives some sense of theatrical performance. This is a point appreciated by award winning writer Naomi Alderman when on BBC Radio 4 she said of the Shakespeare Comic Book Series, ‘Amazing… It’s really like a staging of Shakespeare… You can take it at your own pace… for things like Shakespeare where you really want to be focusing on the words but at the same time seeing the staging – it’s just the perfect form for that.’

Being in a comic doesn’t suddenly make Shakespeare’s text less profound or meaningful, though it might make it more accessible to many students. It’s true the original has been edited, but almost any stage production will edit in places – a full length production of Hamlet would last more than five hours and few these days would have the endurance for that. It is doubtful that even Tudor or Jacobean audiences ever saw the play in its entirety. Editing can be helpful, especially when key scenes and speeches have been preserved.

As well as the edited Shakespeare text, Shakespeare Comic Books also offer a modern English translation. This is important. Much of Shakespeare remains easy to understand. Quite a lot of it is challenging but becomes comprehensible after much scratching of head, chewing of lip and consultation of dictionary. Some of it is utterly unintelligible and about which academic experts fail to agree.

It’s not fair to expect school students to tackle that sort of linguistic demand. It’s also not sense. Students baffled and off-put by the seeming complexity of Shakespeare’s language may turn away from it altogether. Students supported in their understanding by a modern English translation may begin to discover the wonder of his verse.

The Shakespeare Comic Books Series is helping to bring Shakespeare alive for the next generation. It’s not definitive, but it’s a brilliant place to start – or as teacher Helen Reynolds put it, an ‘ideal introduction to Shakespeare.’

More information at www.shakespearecomics.com or on 01691 770165