What the Dickens? Miss Havisham takes Islington class
Spinster Miss Havisham taught a group of Year 11 students as a school marked the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth.
English teacher Joanna Smith dressed up and played the character from the novel Great Expectations at Islington Arts and Media School in Turle Road, Finsbury Park, during a celebration of the 19th-century writer’s life and work.
Other teachers dressed as the Artful Dodger, Bill Sikes and Mr Bumble were also to be found prowling through the classrooms.
Ashley Grey, the school’s community arts co-ordinator, said: “We wanted to teach the students about Dickens the campaigner as well as Dickens the writer.”
At the age of 12 Dickens was forced to work 10-hour shifts in a shoe polish warehouse when his father was sent to a debtors’ prison.
You may also want to watch:
The conditions under which children worked and lived were a theme of his writing throughout his career.
Most Read
- 1 Dangerous driving complaints spur Holloway right-turn bans
- 2 Covid-19 cases start to drop off in Islington
- 3 Emirates pop-up Covid-19 vaccine clinic opens for a second time
- 4 Two new sixth forms planned for Islington and Hackney
- 5 Former Islington BC Slavisa Gegic fighter visits his old club
- 6 More than 1,000 knives surrendered in Islington’s knife bins
- 7 The situation in North London as Arsenal come up against Spurs
- 8 Escape in Islington this weekend: Lovely food and great new shows
- 9 Clapped in the street - and assaulted: Staff call for behaviour change in A&E
- 10 Lidl opens! First shoppers enjoy Finsbury Park supermarket
