In the English Department, teachers dressed up as gothic literature inspired characters, including a few veiled figures from ‘Woman in Black’, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Madame Octa from Darren Shan’s ‘Cirque Du Freak’.  Two Twilight vampires flashed their fangs, The Raven from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem cawed around the College and the poet himself burst into lessons all day to perform his poem to unsuspecting students (and visited the
Year 10 assembly in the morning).  Ms Sheridan decorated her room as The Red Room with candle lit tables and all the English teachers gave hauntingly good lessons throughout the day.

It wasn’t just in the English Department though,
Ms Broom created a Gothic themed Geography lesson for Year 7 and 8 students and the
Learning Resources Centre was transformed into a gothic library, complete with cobwebs and candles!  On display were the huge amount of gothic novels (both classic and contemporary) and graphic novels that are available to borrow from the
Learning Resources Centre, as well as a selection of incredible (but terrifying) Year 8 Gothic Homework projects.

The Learning Resources Centre was packed with students at lunchtime, taking part in the numerous games and competitions on offer:-

• writing the openings to their own gothic stories
• designing gothic settings
• dressing up members of staff as gothic characters using only toilet roll!

Students were able to chill out (or hide behind) the bean bags in the reading zone as Miss Watkinson, Mrs Hewish, Mrs Fairclough and Miss Thorne all read some spooky extracts from their favourite Gothic novels by candlelight.

The day culminated in a challenging and competitive Gothic Literature Quiz, led by
Miss Fawbert Mills, which all sixty students that took part thoroughly enjoyed.

“There was an incredible atmosphere in the Learning Resources Centre all day,” said
Miss Smith, Learning Resources Centre (coordinator) who helped organise the day. “It was wonderful to see so many students enthused by literature!”

“The dedication of the staff and librarians at the College in promoting a sometimes challenging genre, and engaging students in their reading, is so inspiring,” added Mrs Pitcher (Teacher of English) who coordinated the day. “Gothic Literature is a key element of the English Literature GCSE so it is terribly important that we get the students enthused about the genre”.

All in all, it was a spine-chilling day… but a lot of fun!