Young People’s Poetry Competition 2018.
On Friday 14th September five of our Lower IV students attended the Chiswick Book Festival award at the London Buddhist Vihara in Chiswick to receive their prizes for their winning entries in the Young People’s Poetry Competition. Now in its eighth year, the competition attracts entries from many schools across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The competition was open to students aged between 8-12 years old to encourage young people to enjoy creating their own poems. The prizes were presented by Roger McGough, poet, children’s author and playwright who also presents the BBC Radio 4 programme, ‘Poetry Please’.
As announced in June, St Augustine’s Priory pupils won first, second and third places in the Year 7 category of the Young People’s Poetry Competition. Prize winners Naomi, Ava, Ella, Sofia and Elodie, now in Lower IV, were thrilled to receive their prizes and certificates from Roger McGough. St Augustine’s Priory was the only school to receive a special mention as so many of our students had won prizes. It was wonderful to see the group of Augustinians on the stage together holding up their certificates and being cheered on by proud parents and teachers.
Naomi Nnatu was awarded First Prize for her poem ‘Gone’, while Ava Bileckyj and Ella O’Connor received their awards for jointly achieving second prize with their poems ‘Impressionism: What is it?’ and ‘The Climb’. The joint third prize winners were Elodie King with ‘The True Story of Monday 11th September 2017’ and Sofia Duffy with ‘What You Are To Me’.
We are pleased to reproduce Naomi’s poem here:
GONE
There was fire in you.
You were strong, fearless and never afraid.
I liked that about you.
There was ice in you.
Hard to crack, hard to melt.
You never told me your thoughts.
I didn’t like that about you.
You were sometimes a leaf.
Blown about by life.
An array of colours.
Sometimes, you were delicate but never dull.
I had always liked that about you.
Everyday spent with you was a summer’s day.
Everyday without you was a harsh winter.
“Don’t miss me now” you said,
“Miss me when I’m gone”.
Our English teacher, Mr Elder, also received a special mention at the event as, just a few days before, he spoke at the Waterstones Local Authors Party about his book ‘The Space Between Us’.
Roger McGough recited a clever poem at the event which received laughter from the audience called ‘In Case Of Fire, Break Glass.’
We will be celebrating National Poetry Day at St Augustine’s Priory day which takes place on 4th October.
