During December we ran our last course for 2016. We selected Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale for this special Christmas course and as always we had a wonderful, creative time here at Novel English! The first two days of the course were devoted to the children’s’ creative writing projects, where they created their own Winter’s Tale, as well as reading the play and beginning improvisations. We decided to write and act out our own scene, based around the Oracle in Delphi which is not actually shown in Shakespeare’s original script but is obviously a turning point in the lives and fortunes of the

We are very sad to announce the death of Novel English’s resident zebra finch, Fledge, who passed away yesterday morning. He lived to a grand old age of 11 , which truly is remarkable for a bird of his size. He was especially special to us as he was hatched in the little nest where he spent his life and he has been buried in the new Novel English flower bed, where spring bulbs of daffodils and tulips are already beginning to sprout. R.I.P Fledge.

Earlier this month, we held the first of three special Charles Dickens weekend courses: we focused on ‘Oliver Twist’ and the plight of children in Vicotorian workhouses. The children went on to base their creative writing on the workhouse. During the course, we focused up to the point where Oliver Twist is rescued from the street by a kindly benefactor, Mr Brownlow. Therefore, much of the focus was upon his horrible ‘bringing up by hand’ in the workhouse, being apprenticed to an undertaker and being put into the hands of the professional criminal Fagin. The children, some of whom weren’t

During the October half term 2016, Novel English journeyed to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardary! The course was based all around that most loved first novel of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, where we follow 11 year old Harry as he discovers that he is a wizard and takes up his place at Hogwarts, where he faces adventure, mystery and the world of magic to which he belongs. The course began with a welcome tea for the participants and their parents, which was an even more lively affair than usual, so excited were the children to begin the course!

A few weeks ago our latest Triumph of Love course took place here at Novel English! This time the course centred around Jane Austen, one of the most important and brilliant of our female English novelists. We looked in particular at ‘Emma’ and the four day course proved to be as busy and productive as ever! The children had a wonderful time indulging in all things 19th Century, including baking traditional Sally Lunn tea cakes, creating and writing menu cards (using traditional ink pens!) for their Austenesque tea party on the last day and playing plenty of badminton which in

The children who attended the Fantastical Worlds course this year had the opportunity to learn more about the plight of Victorian children as the Minack Theatre put on a production of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby Part I during the running of the course. A trip to the Minack is always a wonderful experience so of course we took the opportunity and attended! Through the performance, the children were able to experience the cruelty of Wackford Squeers in the notorious school Doveboys Hall.

This summer has been a really stimulating one for us, because we have been lucky enough to host many guests from other places in the world; both families bringing their bilingual children to take part in the Children’s Literature courses and others sending their children to improve their language skills in our Holistic English courses. The guests have ranged from Russia, to Sweden, to Poland and to France, and it has been especially wonderful because there has been a splendid chance for local children to become pen friends with our overseas guests. The opportunity for overseas families to stay in

This Fantastical Worlds course was a highlight of the summer due to the wonderful weather we had during it! In between working hard, we had many trips and picnics to the beach, and the children went wading into sea every day! We started off with exploring the plight of children during the 19th Century whilst discussing Charles Kingsley’s novel The Water-Babies. We looked at the terrible working conditions that children such as poor Tom had to put with, but soon were drawn into the magical underwater world of Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby when Tom escapes his mean master Grimes

In the first week of August, we held our Pirates, Smugglers and Treasure course here at Novel English. Here is a blog describing what we did! We started the five day course with our traditional welcome tea with the course participants and their parents. The children had come prepared with articles of clothing and artefacts such as swords and pistols in preparation to be pirates for the week! We soon got deep into the story of Treasure Island, with the children re acting the dreams of Jim, where he is told to look out for ‘the seafaring man with one

June really will be a continuation of Shakespearean madness here at Novel English! We are running a very special mini course over the Midsummer which will focus (of course!) on one of the best known and most loved of the Bard’s plays: A Midsummer’s Night Dream! Enter the fairy gardens of Trelugga; be caught up in magical twists and turns and follow four lovers as they step too far into the Realm of Faery!The weekend course will include late night picnics, readings and performances of the play and lots of homegrown Trelugga strawberries with lashings of Cornish cream!This mini course