Pictured above is the Year 12 English Language group (and the orange-topped Mr Clay) standing in front of the iconic clock tower of the British Library in Kings Cross, London. We were fortunate to secure a workshop delivered by the Lead Curator of Spoken English at the library, Jonathan Robinson, who provided an informative and engaging presentation about aspects of English-speaking accents and dialects. This included the differing grammatical functions of the filler ‘like’, dialectical variants of the adjective ‘attractive’ (you may or may not wish to ask your daughter/son the meaning of ‘leng’) and the impact of ‘out migration’ upon the English language. After the workshop, the group explored some of the library’s collection of significant texts such as a copy of the Magna Carta dating back to 1215 (the library holds two of the existing four original copies) and a handwritten original copy of John Lennon’s lyrics to The Beatles’, Mr Holmes’ favourite.