Wednesday, 10 January 2018

Poet James Nash at Ireland Wood Primary School















The Theme:  World War I

A selection of lines from the children’s poems

Behind me the ghost of my friend,
they’re breaking people’s hearts with bullets.

All I hear is his voice
I smell sweat

Reflections in my mirror won’t leave my head.

Have I been shot or am I having a dream?

Seeing rats made me think of a barbeque.

Glory, now death and glory.

War doesn’t deserve me.

The feeling of fear is skipping all over me.

I’m letting the death come in
and letting the hope go out.

Our room seems old and dusty.
We have waited for months
and I wonder if you have died

He was once in my dreams
but now he is my nightmare.


 


















Comments from teachers (Mattt Collins, Nina Grayson, Adreinne Amos)

As always working with James Nash has brought about the most awesome effect on our Yr. 6 children at IWPS. Their writing has developed in an extraordinary manner – and they are chuffed to bits! A. Amos

An incredible opportunity – our children have written incredible poetry,

The children have grown in self belief and created great poems.

Vice-chair of the Governors
An outstanding event. The inspiration from James and the resulting poems was amazing. The empathy was quite emotional.

The Children were asked what they thought about the project. Below is a summary of their answers.

What was the best thing about the project?
Being able to write all our poems
Helping others
Giving out ideas

What have you learnt?
To write your poem.
Listening and getting ideas
How to look at a picture.

Why is it good to share your work with other children in the school?
Leads to growth in confidence.
To believe in yourself.

What will you remember about this project?
The poems we wrote – the topic
The five questions
The inspiration of working together.

Comments from the Audience
A wonderful opportunity for the children to experience poetry. My child has really enjoyed working with James and is happy with what she has learnt. Thank you for providing this experience.

Nadia has asked me to write for her that she is so grateful to hear the poetry and to understand World War 1 through the children. She had no idea before.

Children learn about WW1 and me also (written for me)

Really enjoyed listening to what the children had wrote! Brilliant!

An absorbing topic which ignited genuine interest from my daughter who enjoyed every moment. Some great work produced at the end.

A great event, being taken through a poetry workshop stage by stage was very insightful. Good to see confidence it has already brought the children to express themselves.

It was such a privilege to hear the children read their poetry today. What an incredible opportunity they have had having James Nash teach and help and inspire them to write such rich and beautiful poetry. A big thank you to Headingley LitFest. Long may these opportunities continue.

It gave me food for thought too. All the children did a fantastic job, I really enjoyed the thought and time and effort that went in.

What a great event. So much creativity amongst the children and so diverse. They have obviously learnt a lot about WW1 and also about creative expression through 

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