National Poetry Day is an annual celebration that inspires people throughout the UK to enjoy, discover and share poems. It was founded in 1994 by the charity Forward Arts Foundation, whose mission is to celebrate excellence in poetry and increase its audience. This week the whole school has been involved in celebrating poetry, from Senior assembly on Monday to fancy dress in the Nursery.
The Junior School held a National Poetry Day festival in the Chapel on Thursday afternoon, 28th September, during which each class recited poetry dressed up as characters from poems or as a poet! They even hosted a special guest, Senior School English teacher Mr Elder, who read to them from his published book of poems, ‘Codes of Conduct’.
Mr Elder asked the girls to think about a time they might have seen a teacher outside school, in the supermarket for example, and whether that seemed odd to the girls. He asked them to think about the fact that their teachers probably have hobbies such as ballroom dancing or even fishing (this idea was met with raucous laughter), and explained that the poem he would read them was about the gap between what we think we know about somebody’s life, and what we actually know. Mr Elder then read the girls ‘Boot Cleaning’, and the girls reflected on all the things their parents do for them.
Each class then recited poems for their rest of the Junior school, from ‘The Dragon that ate our school’ by Nick Toczek to ‘Everyone Sang’ by Siegfried Sassoon. Mrs Knowles told the girls how lovely it was to hear poetry being read out, and that she will be revealing her favourite poem in assembly on Friday, 29th September!
Entry into the Senior School poetry competition ends on 12th October! The theme is ‘Game Changing’, please put entries into one of the designated boxes around the school.
