APS News 27

abingdon.org.uk/prep 5 Year 5 take on ‘The Highwayman’ AbingdonPrep at Home, at School The sun shone on the Year 4 boys during their overnight trip hiking on the Ridgeway in September. Over two days they walked nearly 14 miles, staying overnight at a hostel where they enjoyed playing in the woods and slept well! All boys showed resilience and teamwork over the course of this great trip, as well as having the chance to build new and existing friendships. World Book Day took a different direction at Abingdon Prep this year. Natasha, Head of English and Drama, decided to mark the start of this important day with an assembly entitled The Masked Reader. This involved members of staff covering their faces or using masks whilst reading part of a book they had chosen. The boys and staff watched each video and had to try to guess which masked reader was which. 13 members of staff took part and the assembly was a great success. There were lots of accents being used and some staff have obviously missed their dramatic calling! Year 5 has been studying the romantic ballad poem ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes, published in 1906. They had great fun acting it out in their English lesson. Some of the boys managed to find suitable props for dressing up while others used clever settings on their computer to create their costumes! They also wrote about the poem. Bess is a very important character in this dramatic poem. Bess experiences a wide range of emotions which develop and change at different points in the poem. At the beginning of the poem, in verse three, she is feeling quite excited, looking forward to the Highwayman’s visit. The poem shows this by describing her getting ready, ‘plaiting a dark red love-knot in her long, black hair’. She wants to look her best for his visit, so he thinks she looks nice and is happy when he arrives. When he does arrive, she is feeling very romantic, in love with him. The poet writes in verse 5, ‘One kiss my bonny sweet-heart, and I’m after a prize tonight, But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light.’ These words make Bess feel warm inside and make her feel more in love. Later on in the poem (verse 6), she ‘loosens her hair in the casement’ and lets it flow down to the highwayman, who ‘kissed its waves in the moonlight’. The highwayman told her that he would be back ‘before the morning light’, but since he wasn’t, Bess gets slightly worried and anxious. As it informs you in the poem that ‘he did not come in the dawning, he did not come at noon’. She was eagerly waiting for his return but when he did not, this could make her feel that he either had been caught or injured etc. by something. Later on in the same verse she is puzzled as the ‘red coats came marching, marching-marching, King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn door’. She wondered why they were coming to her father’s house. A verse later (verse 8), she feels more terrified than ever! Alfred Noyes writes, ‘but gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed’. When the red coats tie her.This confused her and she wondered why they were torturing, kissing her and getting drunk. Soon after, Bess also feels in despair when she realises what is going on. The poem reads, ‘And hell at one dark window, for Bess could see through her casement, the road that he would ride’, she then knew that she was acting as bait to lure him in so he could be captured. She is feeling heart- broken at the thought of him being shot down in front of her very eyes and so is desperate to stop it from happening. Now she is is feeling determined and strong (in verse 10). In the poem it says this, ‘she twisted her hands behind her, but all the knots held good... they stretched and strained in the darkness’. As she twists and turns fumbling and writhing to try and grasp hold of the musket. This is tricky as her hands are tied behind her back. Finally, in verse 11, she begins to feel terrified. The poem states, ‘And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain’, she is scared as this is the end of her life, the gun is pointing at her breast. Her heart is pumping quickly but she must try to save and warn the Highwayman before it is too late. As it explains, Bess has many different feelings, she is happy, scared and in love, quite a lot for a small space of time, though all her worries and concerns have gone as she sadly killed herself. Exploring the Feelings of Bess, by Rupert The Masked Reader Lockdown Modelling in Science Year 6 made cells (top), Year 5 made microbes (bottom)