Poet James Nash at Shire Oak Primary School

Animal Magic by Sheila Chapman

James Nash with teacher Ian Martin

The school hall was packed for this poetry performance by Year 3 at Shire Oak Primary School. The Christmas tree was shining in the corner, the children were a sea of bright purple (the school uniform jumper) as they sat on the floor waiting for the poetry to start , and all the parents sat  (very quietly!) at the back. We were all very excited.

James Nash (a Headingley poet who had been working with the children and their teacher, Ian Martin) told us how he brought a tin rhino into school, how the children wrote some very memorable poems about it and how he had then challenged them to write another poem about an animal of their own choice.

The children have been learning about animals this term in class but for this challenge they went away and researched their chosen animal and then wrote about it in verse!

As if that wasn’t enough they then stood up in front of 150 people and read their work. They had no microphone but they spoke loudly and clearly and inspired us with their lovely poetic words and phrasing – James said he might steal some of their lines. One or two of them even wrote rhyming poems! The school plans to put their work into a book and display it in the school library.

We loved it and all the children should be very proud of themselves.

Some lines from the poems. Can you guess what the animal is?

I eat slugs and snails

I have a brown nose

I am striped like a tiger

I fear cavemen

I look like a mixture of animals

I lay eggs I don’t give birth

I squirt water that tickles

I look like an enormous worm…

I have a nose like Lord Voldemort

…big ears and a body shaped like a circle…

I am 4 metres tall

bigger than two adults on top of each other.

My whiskers are like wire

I hunt all day

And blend into the night

I’ll eat anything

That is in my sight.

I am black and white

like a chess board

I eat worms, slugs, snails and dog food

I say ssssssss

I’m very stinky but furry

I eat insects, bugs and worms…

I’m happy when I fart in people’s faces

My tail is like a tarantula’s foot or hand

My fur is like a fluffy carpet

My tail is like bendy plastic.

My eyes are like almonds

What the children thought of the project

The children were asked a series of questions about taking part in the project and below is a summary of their answers.

What was the best thing about the project?

Writing down the poem

Learning how to write poems

Learning how to do short lines and long lines

Seeing the big metal rhino

Writing in the first person

What have you learnt in the sessions?

Learning new spellings and new words

Learning new spellings and new words (when we’re thinking)

Take a pause after a comma

You don’t read a poem quickly

Why is it good to share your work with other children?

Because they learn from you

They find new words and put them in their sentences

They can steal some words

They will know what it is like in year 3

At first you might have felt a bit scared but you overcome it

You feel proud of your work

What will you remember about this project?

How to write a poem properly

How to write a poem short

How much fun it was

Some comments from the audience

A really important experience for the children to be involved with James and Rachel to write animal poetry. We loved hearing the creativity and expression coming through from the year 3 pupils. Brilliant

I thought that the poetry was lovely, really nice how the children got to join in with that.

Really glad to see creative approach to language. Really inclusive, celebratory work, skilfully run by Mr Nash. My son loves poetry!

Great to involve the kids and include the school in LitFest.

My daughter was very excited about her poetry and being able to share it in a special assembly. It was all very novel to her! It really helped build her confidence.

Excellent poems -lots of great adjectives and enthusiasm for writing and learning about poetry.

Great event. Lovely to hear the kids sharing their work

I thought the level of poetry was amazing. So many great descriptive ideas. My son really enjoyed exploring the sessions.

James Nash and Rachel Harkess. Lots of good poems, inspiring subject - animals. All the children very confident and creative, hope they keep it up.

George really enjoyed the poetry sessions that James and Rachel ran at school. He's been writing some (very silly) poems at home, but it still counts! It's nice to see our rhyme dictionary finally get some use!

I was very proud! … thought the poems did sound more like lists of facts … maybe encourage the children to be more creative?

Brilliant. All creative input to help the children express themselves is brilliant. Thanks.

My daughter has told me all about her classes with James Nash. She has really enjoyed them. It has encouraged her to read more poems. I hope to see the event again soon.

Very good. Excellent to get the children involved I poetry - my son was really excited about the event and keen to share what he had written.

 Great to see the whole class involved as equals.

Hunter has really enjoyed working on the poetry project. He felt that it was a special and ‘grown up' project and enjoyed the development of his poem. He spent time writing it out at home in his best hand writing. My son Hunter has taken great pride in producing his poem. He was also excited about meeting a real life poet and is looking forward to telling family members of his experience.

Y. has enjoyed crafting her poem and discovering a new way to write/express. She has gained a lot of confidence through this and is now excited to share her work with everyone.

Funded by your local ward councillors of the Inner North West Community Committee

Poet Malika Booker at Brudenell Primary School

Magic!

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Malika Booker and Laura Hart

Today was the finale for members of a class which has been wordsmithing earnestly for the last three weeks, the grand gala reading in front of the rest of the school, the big blast of poetry with curious children (parents and teachers too) watching and listening in rows in Brudenell Primary’s hall. It was a day of last-minute nerves to be overcome, and a celebration of bold young imaginations. Guest poet Malika Booker, the inspiring guide who has led them to the event with the enthusiastic help of class teacher Laura Hart, was there to introduce them, beam smiles, adjust microphones, whisper encouragement and generally hover at the edge of the performance area. Everybody shone!

The group poems came first - duos, trios and quartets. “Match your emotions to one of the five senses,” Malika had said back in the classroom. “What is Joy like, for example? What can you see, or hear, or feel, or taste or even smell? Is Joy perhaps like blackbirds singing, or what? You can put all the similes into a magic box, a box for your imagination.”

Some of the lines which ended up in the box were impressive, magical even. To point to a few individual contributors:

Happiness is a garden full of multicoloured monkeys, dancing (Ayesha)

Fear is a giant dog, slimy spit coming out of its mouth,

and sadness is a baby rabbit dying in front of my eyes (Alisha)

Sadness is walking in everlasting darkness (Ahmed)

Peace is a butterfly flapping around in a garden, popping bubbles (Hasan)

And a few more... Paradise is light shining in my eyes, Fear is a black sky over a lonely place, with howling winds and rocking trees of winter, Sadness is rain drizzling down a window pane...

All the groups filled their boxes to overflowing, sometimes accompanying spoken words with arm and hand movements, delighting the audience. Then the individual poets stepped forward. They had written recipe poems – an ‘ingredients’ section followed by a ‘method’ section. Titles included “How to make a football match” and “How to make a school outing”, but the greatest impact was made by the children who were still thinking, I am guessing, about Halloween. There were several bowls of eyeballs, in one instance finely chopped, and one girl took obvious pleasure in making a list of her shudder-inducing ingredients, telling the audience “...a hairy rat can be your delight...”

“Why that was gross!” said Malika, grinning. “What do you call that poem?”

“How to make a Hocus Pocus,” was the answer.

Here is one of the group poems:

The Magic Box

We will put in the box,

Joy, warm cushions ready to be relaxed in,

Happiness, a dove dancing in the wind,

Peace, the sound of a magical harp playing.

We will put in the box,

Anger, a vile volcano erupting,

Fear, a cold piece of ice in the middle of nowhere,

Sadness, a ghost haunting you for life.

We will put in the box,

A cute bunny from Spring,

A hot, scorching sun from Summer,

The first leaf that fell in Autumn,

The first icicle that I saw in Winter.

By Zara, Ahmed, Elliot, Adam and Ibrahim

At the end of a substantial show, Malika read out one of her own poems – about her mother who often repeated herself. The audience was invited to chant “pain!” after each line, and plenty of them laughed in recognition. Plenty of mothers are like hers.

Malika was the first poet-in-residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and more recently was Chief Judge of the Forward Prize and of Leeds Peace Poetry

Comments

An aspirational and inspirational opportunity to work with a creative and talented poet who has supported the children at Brudenell to engage their senses and emotions when they write. Malika has a natural affinity with children, but can also break down the blocks of poetry writing so they are accessible to them, and has produced some wonderful, evocative pieces.      (Jo Davies, Headteacher)

Poetry is very valuable for the pupils. It is fantastic to have the workshop from Headingley LitFest. The children love meeting the poet and listening to her work. I particularly love the effect is has on children’s confidence – especially those who may struggle with other writing styles. All the children were happy, enthused and involved.  Thankyou! (Laura Hart. Year 5/6 teacher)

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The session was really enjoyable. The children were strongly involved and interested. It was well delivered by Malika – and she gave the children lots of ideas to start them off. They came up with some great imaginative ideas – which was lovely to see. (Phoebe Parker, Teaching Assistant)

Funded by your local ward councillors of the Inner North West Community Committee

Charlotte Brontë - terrible teacher, brilliant novelist

...am I to spend all the best part of my life in this wretched bondage, forcibly suppressing my rage at the idleness, the apathy and the hyperbolical & most asinine stupidity of those fat-headed oafs, and on compulsion assuming an air of kindness, patience and assiduity? 

These were the thoughts of the young Charlotte Brontë, as written into her journal when she was a teacher at Roe Head School in Mirfield.

The short-sighted author had a habit of making entries in it while the class was in progress: there are reports of her writing in tiny script, her nose nearly touching the paper, then sitting with her eyes closed. The girls in front of her might have thought she was receiving spirit messages.

She did not make much of a success of being a governess either - to just two of the small children of Skipton mill owner John Benson Sidgwick. When she lived with him and his family at his splendid house - Stone Gappe in Lothersdale, she was barely able to control them, and found them irritating, but she did admire his Newfoundland dog. Stone Gappe became a model for Gateshead in Jane Eyre.

Richard Wilcocks, a former Chair of the Brontë Society, will speak about a lot more of her writing and her life when he gives a Powerpoint- assisted talk in Headingley Library on Thursday 8 December at 7pm called ‘Charlotte Brontë – Terrible Teacher, Brilliant Novelist’. He will also go into role as John Benson Sidgwick, who will give his own view of the unhappy woman he employed, and of governesses in general.

The talk is a LitFest ‘Between the Lines’ event and it is free. The main part of the annual Headingley LitFest (the tenth) takes place in March next year.

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