Poet James Nash at Quarry Mount Primary School

Beowulf, Blood and Brutality at Quarry Mount by Sally Bavage

“Good afternoon, everyone”  said James Nash, the local poet commissioned by Headingley LitFest to work at Quarry Mount primary school with Ms Aspin's year 5 class.

“Good afternoon Mr Nash” chorused the whole class immediately – a clear sign of just how polite they are and how seriously they took the occasion.

James had taken the tale of Beowulf from a very old tome he uses as a stimulus and used it with these nine-year-olds to get them to listen to poetry, take in the story and write some lines of their own that reflected what they had absorbed of the ancient saga.  A heck of a lot! 

Class 5 teacher Rachel Aspin with James Nash

The young readers used a music stand as a lectern and the rhythms of their language played out over the audience listening with rapt attention.  Beowulf the hero and Grendel the monster do various kinds of bloodstained battle, with a wide range of appropriate language that took the story back to the first millennium rather than echo the X-box vocabulary more normal today.  We had carnage, revenge, gruesome encounters and old-fashioned victory despite the odds. Beowulf “ripped his arm off like a piece of paper” rather stays in the mind.  How good to acquire the art of reading with  confidence, animation and verve in public at this young age – something a good few adults could do with brushing up!

One young lady used the rhetorical question form very deftly to pose and then answer questions about Beowulf's progress.  It was heartening to see how the youngsters had learned to read out clearly and deliver bravura performances despite earlier nerves.

Maryam reads out her Beowulf tale

As Kay Hendley, headteacher, said: “The poems were crafted carefully, read out with confidence and shared with the audience with great enthusiasm.  It was an absolute pleasure to be with these young writers.  Children here have fewer opportunities than some for this kind of experience of literature so this is a marvellous chance for them.”

Ms Gough, teaching assistant with year 5, added: “Quite a few of the children did not really know what poetry was or how to write a poem before James came.  They have worked so hard on their own writing and they have obviously really enjoyed it.”

Class teacher Rachel Aspin: “The youngsters were so looking forward to performing their work; it has definitely changed the behaviour of some of them.  One young boy, normally very reluctant, sat down so diligently to write it was wonderful to see.  And the confidence of the whole group has just soared.”

Final word to Alisha, when asked to sum up in one sentence what the class had got from the exposure to reading and writing poetry: “Inspiration and happiness.”

Tales of Beowulf are to be scanned for the school website then put on display.  A lovely legacy for the future readers of Quarry Mount.  Thanks once again to the Inner North West area management committee for granting us the funding for this project.  Thanks, too, to Rachel Harkess of Headingley LitFest who helped out with the workshops.

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